THE HUMAN SIDE 
OF ANIMALS 




ROYAL DIXON 




Pass QUn 5\ 
Book. 7 B 5 



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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 



THE 

HUMAN SIDE 
OF ANIMALS 



BY 



ROYAL DIXON 



AUTHOR OF 'THE HUMAN 8IDB OP PLANTS, "THE HUMAN SIDE OF 
"THE HUMAN SIDE OF BIRDS," ETC. 



WITH TWO ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLORS AND 
THIRTY-TWO IN BLACK-AND-WHITE 




NEW YORK 
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 












Copyright, 1918, by 
Frederick A. Stokes Company 



All rights reserved, including that of translation 
into foreign languages 



3taU501?46 



SEP ~ 9 VoV6 









TO 

MARCELLUS E. FOSTER 

WHO BELIEVED 



NOTE 

The author wishes to acknowledge his in- 
debtedness to his fellow-naturalist and friend, 
Mr. Franklyn Everett Fitch, for carefully read- 
ing the entire manuscript and making many 
scholarly and valuable criticisms and corrections. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Foreword xiii 

I Animals that Practise Camouflage . 1 

II Animal Musicians 18 

III Animals at Play 32 

IV Armour-Bearing and Mail-Clad Ani- 

mals 46 

V Miners and Excavators 61 

VI Animal Mathematicians ..... 88 

VII The Language of Animals .... 99 

VIII In their Boudoirs, Hospitals and 

Churches 120 

IX Self-Defence and Home-Government . 130 

X Architects, Engineers, and House- 

Builders 150 

XI Food Conservers 170 

XII Tourists and Sight-Seers .... 181 

XIII Animal Scavengers and Criminals . . 199 

XIV As the Allies of Man 210 

XV The Future Life of Animals . . . 234 



vu 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Recreation is as common among animals as it is among children (in 

Colours) Frontispiece V 

PACING 
PAGE 

The Indians claim that the mother bison forced her calf to roll often 
in a puddle of red clay, so that it might be indistinguishable against 
its clay background 6 

The zebra is one of the cleverest of camouflagers. The black-and-white 
stripes of his body give the effect of sunlight passing through bushes 7 

Monkeys are the most musical of all animals. When they congregate 
for "concerts," as some of the tribes do, the air is filled with weird 
strains of monkey -music 20 

Cats, unlike dogs, are very fond of music. And it has been proved that 
their music-sense can be developed to a remarkable degree ... 21 

A happy family of polar bears. The young cubs wrestle and tumble, 
as playfully as two puppies. This play has much to do with their 
physical and mental development 34 ^ 

Dryptosaurus. The prehistoric animals, too, undoubtedly had their 
play time, with games and "setting up" exercises 35 

The mother opossum is never happier than when she has her little ones 

j playing hide-and-seek over her back 38 ^ 

This young fox came from his home in the woods daily to play with a 

young fox-terrier. He is now resting after a romp 39 - 

Naosaurus and Dimetrodon, two extinct armour-bearers who should 
have been well able to protect themselves 50 

An armour-bearer of prehistoric times whose shield was an effective 
protection against enemy horns 51 

To the polar bear the ice and snow of the Far North means warmth 
and protection. The mother bear digs herself into a snowbank, 
where she lives quite comfortably throughout the winter ... 84 

The sharp claws of the ground squirrel are efficacious tools in digging 

his cosy underground burrow 85 ' 

The coyote can readily distinguish whether a herd of sheep is guarded 

by one or more dogs, and will plan his attack accordingly ... 94 ' 

The zebu, the sacred bull of India, in spite of its domestication, has an 

agile body and a quick, alert mind 95 

ix 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

Roosevelt's Colobus. These horse-tailed monkeys chatter together in 
a language exclusively their own, yet they seem to have no difficulty 
in making themselves understood by other monkey- tribes . . . 112 

A tamed deer of Texas, whose constant companion and playmate was 
a rabbit dog. Between the two, there developed, necessarily, a 
common language 113 

Water-loving animals, like the beavers, seemingly take great pride in 
their toilets. Their fur is always sleek and clean 122 

Great forest pigs of Central Africa. Like the common domesticated 
hogs, they will seek a clay bath to heal their wounds .... 123 

The Rocky Mountain goat has many means of defence, not the least of 
which is his agility in climbing to inaccessible places .... 134 

Wild boars are among the most ferocious of animals. By means of 
their great strength alone they are well able to defend themselves 135 

Brontosaurus. The animals that seemed best equipped to defend them- 
selves are the ones that, thousands of years ago, became extinct . 144 

This prehistoric monster was equipped not only with a pair of strong 
horns but with a shield back of them as well 145 

The beaver is the greatest of all animal architects. His skill is equalled 
only by his patience (in Colours) 158 

The skunk mother tries to keep on hand a good supply of such deli- 
cacies as frogs and toads, so that her young may never go hungry 172 

The porcupine and the hedgehog have a unique method of collecting 
food for their young. After shaking down berries or grapes, they roll 
in them, then hurry home with the food attached to their quills . 173 

The black bear is not one of the great migrating animals. The thick- 
ness of his coat must therefore change with the seasons . . . 188 

Rabbits seem to have a well-devised system in their road-building, 
running their paths in and out of underbrush in a truly ingenious 
manner 189 

The mongoose, a scavenger of the worst type, feeding on rats and 
mice and snakes, and even poultry 202 

Diplodocus. The prehistoric animals, also, undoubtedly had their 
scavengers and criminals 203 

The Esquimo-dog is man's greatest friend in the Far North . . . 218 

Chipmunks are among the most easily tamed of man's wild friends, 
and they even seem fond of human companionship ..... 219 

Men cruelly take the lives of these denizens of the wildwood, rejoicing 
in their slaughter, but the animal soul they cannot kill .... 244 

Two pals. There is between man and dog a kinship of spirit that cannot 
be denied 245 



FOREWORD 

"And in the lion or the frog — 
In all the life of moor or fen — 
In ass and peacock, stork and dog, 
He read similitudes of men." 

MORE and more science is being taught in a 
new way. More and more men are begin- 
ning to discard the lumber of the brain's workshop 
to get at real facts, real conclusions. Laboratories, 
experiments, tables, classifications are all very vital 
and all very necessary but sometimes their net re- 
sult is only to befog and confuse. Occasionally it 
becomes important for us to cast aside all dogmatic 
restraints and approach the wonders of life from a 
new angle and with the untrammelled spirit of a 
little child. 

In this book I have attempted to bring together 
many old and new observations which tend to show 
the human-like qualities of animals. The treat- 
ment is neither formal nor scholastic, in fact I do 
not always remain within the logical confines of 
the title. My sole purpose is to make the reader 

xiii 



xiv FOREWORD 

self-active, observative, free from hide-bound 
prejudice, and reborn as a participant in the won- 
derful experiences of life which fill the universe. I 
hope to lead him into a new wonderland of truth, 
beauty and love, a land where his heart as well as 
his eyes will be opened. 

In attempting to understand the animals I have 
used a method a great deal like that of the village 
boy, who when questioned as to how he located the 
stray horse for which a reward of twenty dollars 
had been offered, replied, "I just thought what I 
would do if I were a horse and where I would go — ■ 
and there I went and found him." In some such 
way I have tried to think why animals do certain 
things, I have studied them in many places and 
under all conditions, and those acts of theirs which, 
if performed by children, would come under the 
head of wisdom and intelligence, I have classified 
as such. 

Life is one throughout. The love that fills a 
mother's heart when she sees her first-born babe, is 
also felt by the mother bear, only in a different 
way, when she sees her baby cubs playing before 
her humble cave dwelling. The sorrow that is felt 
by the human heart when a beloved one dies is ex- 
perienced in only a little less degree by an African 
ape when his mate is shot dead by a Christian mis- 



FOREWORD xv 

sionary. The grandmother sheep that watches her 
numerous little lamb grandchildren on the hillside, 
while their mothers are away grazing, is just as 
mindful of their care as any human grandparent 
could be. One drop of water is like the ocean ; and 
love is love. 

The trouble with science is that too often it 
leaves out love. If you agree that we cannot treat 
men like machines, why should we put animals in 
that class? Why should we fall into the colossal 
ignorance and conceit of cataloging every human- 
like action of animals under the word "instinct"? 
Man delights in thinking of himself as only a little 
lower than the angels. Then why should he not 
consider the animals as only a little lower than him- 
self? The poet has truly said that "the beast is the 
mirror of man as man is the mirror of God." Man 
had to battle with animals for untold ages before 
he domesticated and made servants of them. He 
is just begimiing to learn that they were not cre- 
ated solely to furnish material for sermons, nor to 
serve mankind, but that they also have an existence, 
a life of their own. 

Man has long preached this doctrine that he is 
not an animal, but a kinsman of the gods. For this 
reason, he has claimed dominion over animal crea- 
tion and a right to assert that dominion without 



xvi FOREWORD 

restraint. This anthropocentric conceit is the same 
thing that causes one nation to think it should rule 
the world, that the sun and moon were made only 
for the laudable purpose of giving light unto a 
chosen few, and that young lambs playing on a 
grassy hillside, near a cool spring, are just so much 
mutton allowed to wander over man's domain until 
its flavour is improved. 

It is time to remove the barriers, once believed 
impassable, which man's egotism has used as a 
screen to separate him from his lower brothers. 
Our physical bodies are very similar to theirs ex- 
cept that ours are almost always much inferior. 
Merely because we have a superior intellect which 
enables us to rule and enslave the animals, shall we 
deny them all intellect and all feeling? In the 
words of that remarkable naturalist, William J. 
Long, "To call a thing intelligence in one creature 
and reflex action in another, or to speak of the same 
thing as love or kindness in one and blind impulse 
in the other, is to be blinder ourselves than the im- 
pulse which is supposed to govern animals. Until, 
therefore, we have some new chemistry that will 
ignore atoms and the atomic law, and some new 
psychology that ignores animal intelligence alto- 
gether, or regards it as under a radically different 
law from our own, we must apply what we know 



FOREWORD xvii 

of ourselves and our own motives to the smaller and 
weaker lives that are in some distant way akin to 
our own." 

It is possible to explain away all the marvellous 
things the animals do, but after you have finished, 
there will still remain something over and above, 
which quite defies all mechanistic interpretation. 
An old war horse, for instance, lives over and over 
his battles in his dreams. He neighs and paws, 
just as he did in real battle; and cavalrymen tell 
us that they can sometimes understand from their 
horses when they are dreaming just what command 
they are trying to obey. This is only one of the 
myriads of animal phenomena which man does not 
understand. If you doubt it, try to explain the 
striking phenomena of luminescence, hybridization, 
of eels surviving desiccation for fourteen years, 
post-matrimonial cannibalism, Nature's vast chain 
of unities, the suicide of lemmings, why water ani- 
mals cannot get wet, transparency of animals, why 
the horned toad shoots a stream of blood from his 
eye when angry. If you are able to explain these 
things to humanity, you will be classed second only 
to Solomon. Yet the average scientist explains 
them away, with the ignorance and loquaciousness 
of a fisher hag. 

By a thorough application of psychological prin- 



xviii FOREWORD 

ciples, it is possible to show that man himself is 
merely a machine to be explained in terms of neu- 
rones and nervous impulses, heredity and environ- 
ment and reactions to outside stimuli. But who is 
there who does not believe that there is more to a 
man than that ? 

Animals have demonstrated long ago that they 
not only have as many talents as human beings, 
but that under the influence of the same environ- 
ment, they form the same kinds of combinations to 
defend themselves against enemies ; to shelter them- 
selves against heat and cold ; to build homes ; to lay 
up a supply of food for the hard seasons. In fact, 
all through the ages man has been imitating the 
animals in burrowing through the earth, penetrat- 
ing the waters, and now, at last, flying through the 
air. 

When a skunk bites through the brains of frogs, 
paralysing but not killing them, in order that he 
may store them away in his nursery-pantry so that 
his babes may have fresh food ; when a mole decapi- 
tates earth-worms for the same reason and stores 
them near the cold surface of the ground so that 
the heads will not regrow, as they would under nor- 
mal conditions, only a deeply prejudiced man can 
claim that no elements of intelligence have been 
employed. 



FOREWORD xix 

There are also numerous signs, sounds and mo- 
tions by which animals communicate with each 
other, though to man these symbols of language 
may not always be understandable. Dogs give 
barks indicating surprise, pleasure and all other 
emotions. Cows will bellow for days when mourn- 
ing for their dead. The mother bear will bury her 
dead cub and silently guard its grave for weeks to 
prevent its being desecrated. The mother sheep will 
bleat most pitifully when her lamb strays away. 
Foxes utter expressive cries which their children 
know full well. The chamois, when frightened, 
whistle ; they might be termed the policemen of the 
animal world. The sentinel will continue a long, 
drawn-out whistle, as long as he can without taking 
a breath. He then stops for a brief moment, looks 
in all directions, and begins blowing again. If the 
danger comes too near, he scampers away. 

In their ability to take care of their wounded 
bodies, in their reading of the weather and in all 
forms of woodcraft, animals undoubtedly possess 
superhuman powers. Even squirrels can prophesy 
an unusually long and severe winter and thus make 
adequate preparations. Some animals act as both 
barometers and thermometers. It is claimed that 
while frogs remain yellow, only fair weather may 



xx FOREWORD 

be expected, but if their colour changes to brown, 
ill weather is coming. 

There is no limit to the marvellous things ani- 
mals do. Elephants, for example, carry leafy 
palms in their trunks to shade themselves from the 
hot sun. The ape or baboon who puts a stone in 
the open oyster to prevent it from closing, or lifts 
stones to crack nuts, or beats his fellows with sticks, 
or throws heavy cocoanuts from trees upon his 
enemies, or builds a fire in the forest, shows more 
than a glimmer of intelligence. In the sly fox that 
puts out fish heads to bait hawks, or suddenly 
plunges in the water and immerses himself to es- 
cape hunters, or holds a branch of a bush over his 
head and actually runs with it to hide himself; in 
the wolverine who catches deer by dropping moss, 
and suddenly springing upon them and clawing 
their eyes out; in the bear, who, as told in the ac- 
count of Cook's third voyage, "rolls down pieces of 
rock to crush stags; in the rat when he leads his 
blind brother with a stick" is actual reasoning. In- 
deed, there is nothing which man makes with all his 
ingenious use of tools and instruments, of which 
some suggestion may not be seen in animal crea- 
tion. 

Great thinkers of all ages are not wanting who 
believe that animals have a portion of that same 



FOREWORD xxi 

reason which is the pride of man. Montaigne ad- 
mitted that they had both thought and reason, and 
Pope believed that even a cat may consider a man 
made for his service. Humboldt, Helvitius, Dar- 
win and Smellie claimed that animals act as a def- 
inite result of actual reasoning. Lord Brougham 
pertinently observes, "I know not why so much un- 
willingness should be shown by some excellent phi- 
losophers to allow intelligent faculties and a share 
of reason to the lower animals, as if our own su- 
periority was not quite sufficiently established to 
leave all jealousy out of view by the immeasurably 
higher place which we occupy in the scale of being." 

From the facts enumerated in this book I find 
that animals are possessed of love, hate, joy, grief, 
courage, revenge, pain, pleasure, want and satis- 
faction — that all things that go to make up man's 
life are also found in them. In the attempt to es- 
tablish this thesis I have been led mentally and 
physically into some of Nature's most fascinating 
highways and hedges, where I have had many occa- 
sions to wonder and adore. I will be happy if I 
have at least added something to the depth of love 
and appreciation with which most men look upon 
the animal world. 

Royal Dixon. 

New York, April, 1918. 



THE HUMAN SIDE 
OF ANIMALS 



ANIMALS THAT PRACTISE CAMOUFLAGE 

"She was a gordian shape of dazzling line, 
Vermilion-spotted, golden, green and blue; 
Striped like a zebra, freckled like a pard, 
Eyed like a peacock, and all crimson barr'd, 
And full of silver moons, that, as she breathed, 
Dissolved, or brighter shone, or interwreathed 
Their lustres with the glorious tapestries . . ." 

— Keats (on Lamia, the snake). 

THE art of concealment or camouflage is one 
of the newest and most highly developed tech- 
niques of modern warfare. But the animals have 
been masters of it for ages. The lives of most of 
them are passed in constant conflict. Those which 
have enemies from which they cannot escape by 
rapidity of motion must be able to hide or disguise 
themselves. Those which hunt for a living must 
be able to approach their prey without unnecessary 



2 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

noise or attention to themselves. It is very remark- 
able how Nature helps the wild creatures to dis- 
guise themselves by colouring them with various 
shades and tints best calculated to enable them to 
escape enemies or to entrap prey. 

The animals of each locality are usually coloured 
according to their habitat, but good reasons make 
some exceptions advisable. Many of the most 
striking examples of this protective resemblance 
among animals are the result of their very intimate 
association with the surrounding flora and natural 
scenery. There is no part of a tree, including 
flowers, fruits, bark and roots, that is not in some 
way copied and imitated by these clever creatures. 
Often this imitation is astonishing in its faithful- 
ness of detail. Bunches of cocoanuts are portrayed 
by sleeping monkeys, while even the leaves are 
copied by certain tree-toads, and many flowers are 
represented by monkeys and lizards. The winding 
roots of huge trees are copied by snakes that twist 
themselves together at the foot of the tree. 



Note: The word "mimicry" as used here implies a particular kind 
of resemblance only, a resemblance in external appearance, never 
internal, a resemblance that deceives. It does not imply voluntary 
imitation. Both the words "mimicry" and "imitation" are used to 
imply outward likeness. The object of the outward likeness or re- 
semblance is to cause a harmless or unprotected animal to be mis- 
taken for the dangerous one which he oftentimes imitates; or to 
aid the unprotected animal in escaping unnoticed among the sur- 
roundings he may simulate. 



ANIMAL CAMOUFLAGE 3 

In the art of camouflage — an art which affects 
the form, colour, and attitude of animals — Nature 
has worked along two different roads. One is easy 
and direct, the other circuitous and difficult. The 
easy way is that of protective resemblance pure and 
simple, where the animal's colour, form, or attitude 
becomes like that of its habitat. In which case the 
animal becomes one with its environment and thus 
is enabled to go about unnoticed by its enemies or 
by its prey. The other way is that of bluff, and it 
includes all inoffensive animals which are capable 
of assuming attitudes and colours that terrify and 
frighten. The colours in some cases are really of 
warning pattern, yet they cannot be considered 
mimetic unless they are thought to resemble the 
patterns of some extinct model of which we know 
nothing; and since they are not found in present- 
day animals with unpleasant qualities, they are not, 
strictly speaking, warning colours. 

Desert animals are in most cases desert-coloured. 
The lion, for example, is almost invisible when 
crouched among the rocks and streams of the 
African wastes. Antelopes are tinted like the 
landscape over which they roam, while the camel 
seems actually to blend with the desert sands. The 
kangaroos of Australia at a little distance seem to 
disappear into the soil of their respective localities, 



4 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

while the cat of the Pampas accurately reflects his 
surroundings in his fur. 

The tiger is made so invisible by his wonderful 
colour that, when he crouches in the bright sunlight 
amid the tall brown grass, it is almost impossible to 
see him. But the zebra and the giraffe are the 
kings of all camouflagers ! So deceptive are the 
large blotch-spots of the giraffe and his weird head 
and horns, like scrubby limbs, that his concealment 
is perfect. Even the cleverest natives often mis- 
take a herd of giraffes for a clump of trees. The 
camouflage of zebras is equally deceptive. Drum- 
mond says that he once found himself in a forest, 
looking at what he thought to be a lone zebra, when 
to his astonishment he suddenly realised that he 
was facing an entire herd which were invisible until 
they became frightened and moved. Evidently the 
zebra is well aware that the black-and-white stripes 
of his coat take away the sense of solid body, and 
that the two colours blend into a light gray, and 
thus at close range the effect is that of rays of sun- 
light passing through bushes. 

The arctic animals, with few exceptions, are re- 
markable for imitating their surroundings; their 
colour of white blends perfectly with the snow 
around them. The polar bear is the only white 
bear, and his home is always among the snow and 



ANIMAL CAMOUFLAGE 5 

ice. The arctic fox, alpine hare, and ermine change 
to white in winter only, because during the other 
seasons white would be too conspicuous. The 
American arctic hare is always white because he 
always lives among the white expanses of the Far 
North. Both foxes and stoats are carnivorous and 
feed upon ptarmigan and hares, and they must be 
protectively coloured that they may catch their 
prey. On the other hand, Nature aids the prey by 
providing them with colours that enable them to 
escape the attention of their enemies. 

The young of many of the arctic animals are 
covered with fluffy white hair, so that while they 
are too young to swim they may lie with safety 
upon the ground and escape the attention of polar 
bears ; but in the antarctic regions, where there are 
few enemies to fear, the young seals, for instance, 
are exactly the colour of their parents. 

The most remarkable exception of mimetic col- 
ouring among the animals of the polar regions is 
the sable. Throughout the long Siberian winter 
he retains his coat of rich brown fur. His habits, 
however, are such that he does not need the protec- 
tion of colour, for he is so active that he can easily 
catch wild birds, and he can also subsist upon wild 
berries. The wood-chuck of North America re- 
tains his coat of dark-brown fur throughout the 



6 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

long, cold winters. The matter of his obtaining 
food, however, is easy, for he lives in burrows, near 
streams where he can catch fish and small animals 
that live in or near the water. 

A number of the old-school naturalists believed 
that when an animal's colouring assumed the 
snowy-white coat of its arctic surroundings, this 
was due to the natural tendency on the part of its 
hair and fur to assume the colourings and tints of 
their habitat. This, however, is absolutely false; 
and no better proof of it can be offered than the 
case of the arctic musk-ox, who is far more polar 
in his haunts than even the polar bear, and is there- 
fore exposed to the whitening influence of the 
wintry regions more than the bear. Yet he never 
turns white, but is always brown. The only enemy 
of this northern-dweller is the arctic wolf, and 
against this enemy he is protected by powerful 
hoofs, thick hair, and immense horns. He does not 
need to conceal himself, and therefore does not 
simulate the colour of his surroundings. 

Mimetic resemblances are worked out with great 
difficulty, except in such cases as the nocturnal ani- 
mals, which simply become one with their surround- 
ings. Mice, rats, moles, and bats wear overcoats 
that are very inconspicuous, and when suddenly 
approached they appear almost invisible. Some of 




American Museum of Natural History, New York 

HE INDIANS CLAIM THAT THE MOTHER BISON FORCED HER CALF TO ROLL 
,FTEN IN A PUDDLE OF RED CLAY, SO THAT IT MIGHT BE INDISTINGUISHABLE 
AGAINST ITS RED CLAY BACKGROUND. 



ANIMAL CAMOUFLAGE 7 

the North American Indians claimed that buffaloes 
made their calves wallow in the red clay to prevent 
them from being seen when they were lying down 
in the red soil. 

The kinds of protection from these mimetic re- 
semblances are many and varied: the lion, because 
of his sandy-colouring, is able to conceal himself by 
merely crouching down upon the desert sands ; the 
striped tiger hides among the tufts of grass and 
bamboos of the tropics, the stripes of his body so 
blending with the vertical stems as to prevent even 
the natives from seeing him in this position. The 
kudu, one of the handsomest of the antelopes, is a 
remarkable animal in several ways. His camou- 
flage is so perfect that it gives him magnificent 
courage. With his spiral horns, white face, and 
striped coat tinted in pale blue, he is almost invisi- 
ble when hiding in a thicket. The perfect harmony 
of his horns with the twisted vines and branches, 
and the white colourings with blue tints in the re- 
flected sunlight conceal him entirely. 

The snow-leopard, which inhabits Central Asia, 
is stony-grey, with large annular spots to match 
the rocks among which he lives. This colouration 
conceals him from the sheep, upon which he preys ; 
while the spotted and blotchy pattern of the so- 
called clouded tiger, and the peculiarly-barred skin 



8 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

of the ocelot, imitate the rugged bark of trees, upon 
which these animals live. 

One of the most unusual and skilled mimics is 
the Indian sloth, whose colour pattern and unique 
eclipsing effects seem almost incredible to those un- 
familiar with the real facts. His home is in the 
trees, and he has a deep, orange-coloured spot on 
his back, which would make him very conspicuous 
if seen out of his home surroundings. But he is 
very clever, and clings to the moss-draped trees, 
where the effect of the orange-coloured spot is 
exactly like the scar on the tree, while his hair re- 
sembles the withered moss so strikingly that even 
naturalists are deceived. 

Henry Drummond must have known the animal 
world rather well when he remarked that "Carlisle 
in his blackest visions of 'shams and humbugs' 
among humanity never saw anything so finished in 
hypocrisy as the naturalist now finds in every tropi- 
cal forest. There are to be seen creatures, not 
singly, but in tens of thousands, whose every ap- 
pearance, down to the minutest spot and wrinkle, 
is an affront to truth, whose every attitude is a pose 
for a purpose, and whose whole life is a sustained 
lie. Before these masterpieces of deception the 
most ingenious of human impositions are vulgar 
and transparent. Fraud is not only the great rule 



ANIMAL CAMOUFLAGE 9 

of life in a tropical forest, but the one condition 
of it." 

Many of the larger cats live in trees, and most 
of them have spotted or oscillated skins, which aid 
them in hiding among foliage plants. The puma 
who wears a brown coat is an exception, but it must 
be remembered that he does not need the kind of 
coat his fellow friends wear. He clings so closely 
to the body of a tree while waiting for his prey as 
to be almost invisible. 

This phenomenon is true throughout the animal 
world. Everywhere does Nature aid in escape and 
capture. Only those skilled in the ways of the 
wild fully realise how conspicuous amidst foliage, 
for instance, would be a uniform colouration. A 
parti-coloured pattern is extremely deceptive and 
thus protective, and for this reason one seldom sees 
in Nature a background of one colour; and since 
the large majority of animals need concealment, it 
is necessary for them to be clothed in patterns that 
vary. 

These variations are especially noticeable in 
young animals, and furnish them with a mantle 
that is practically invisible to predatory enemies 
during the time they are left unprotected by their 
parents. These protective mantles often differ 
strikingly in pattern and colouration from those 



10 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

of their parents, and indicate that the young ani- 
mals present the colouration and pattern of their 
remote forbears. It might even be said that "the 
skins of the fathers are thrust upon the children, 
even unto the third and fourth generation!" In 
fact, it is quite probable that they give through this 
varying colouration the "life-history" of their 
family. 

In all hoofed animals — antelope, deer, horses — 
the protective colouration is also adapted to habitat 
and environment. Most deer belong to the forest, 
carefully avoiding the open deserts and staying 
near water. They live chiefly in the jungle or 
scrub, and are usually spotted with red and white 
in such a way as to be almost invisible to a casual 
observer ; some, however, that live in the very shady 
places are uniformly dark so as to harmonise with 
their surroundings. The wild horses and asses of 
Central Asia are dun-coloured — corresponding ex- 
actly to their sandy habitat. 

The Shakesperian conception of the human 
world as a stage may be paralleled in the animal 
world. Animals, like human beings, have all a 
definite role to play in the drama of life. Each is 
given certain equipment in form, colour, voice, de- 
meanour, ambitions, desires, and natural habitat. 
Some are given much, others but little. Many have 



ANIMAL CAMOUFLAGE 11 

succeeded well in the art of camouflage while en- 
deavouring to make a success in life. This success 
has brought the desired opportunity of mating, 
rearing young, bequeathing to them their special 
gifts and living in ease and comfort. 

One of the most successful and striking cases of 
protective colouration in young animals is found 
in wild swine. Here there is longitudinal striping 
which marks them from head to tail in broad white 
bands, over a background of reddish dark brown. 
The tapirs have a most unique form of marking. 
It is similar in the young of the South American 
and Malayan species. Their bodies are exquisitely 
marked in snow-white bars. At their extremities 
these bars are broken up into small dots which tend 
to overlap each other. During the daytime these 
young animals seek the shade of the bushes and as 
the spots of sunlight fall upon the ground they 
appear so nearly one with their environment as to 
pass unnoticed by their enemies. The adults, how- 
ever, vary greatly one from another in colouration. 
The American species is self-coloured, while the 
Malayan has the most unique pattern known to 
the animal world. The fore-quarters, the head, and 
the hind-legs are black, while the rest of the body 
from the shoulders backwards is of a dirt-white 
colour. 



12 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

It has been observed by all students of Nature 
that bold and gaudy animals usually have means 
of defending themselves that make them very dis- 
agreeable to their enemies. They either have 
poisonous fangs, sharp spines, ferocious claws, or 
disagreeable odours. There are still others that 
escape destruction because of the bad company with 
which they are associated by their enemies. 

The reptiles offer us many good examples of 
mimicry. Most arboreal lizards wear the colour of 
the leaves upon which they feed; the same is true 
of the whip-snakes and the tiny green tree-frogs. 
A striking example of successful camouflage is 
found in the case of a North American frog whose 
home is on lichen-covered rocks and walls, which 
he so closely imitates in colour and pattern as to 
pass unnoticed so long as he remains quiet. I have 
seen an immense frog, whose home was in a damp 
cave, with large green and black spots over his 
body precisely like the spots on the sides of his 
home. 

A splendid example of pure bluff is shown in 
the case of the harmless Australian lizard, known 
scientifically under the name of chlamydosaurus 
Mngii. When he is undisturbed he seems perfectly 
inoffensive, but when he becomes angry, he be- 
comes a veritable fiend-like reptile. In this con- 



ANIMAL CAMOUFLAGE 



13 



dition he stands up on his hind legs, opens his gap- 
ing mouth, showing the most terrible teeth, which, 
by the way, have never been known to bite any- 
thing. Besides this forbidding display he further 
adds to his terrible appearance by raising the most 
extraordinary frill which is exquisitely decorated 
in grey, yellow, scarlet, and blue. This he uses 
like an umbrella, and if in this way he does not 
succeed in frightening away his enemy, he rushes 
at him, and lashes him with his saw-like tail. Even 
dogs are terrified at such camouflage and leave the 
successful bluffer alone. 

In all parts of the tropics are tree-snakes that 
lie concealed among the boughs and shrubs. Most 
of them are green, and some have richly coloured 
bands around their bodies which look not unlike 
gaily coloured flowers, and which, no doubt, attract 
flower-seeking insects and birds. Among these 
may be mentioned the deadly-poisonous snakes of 
the genus elaps of South America. They are so 
brilliantly provided with bright red and black 
bands trimmed with yellow rings that it is not un- 
common for a plant collector to attempt to pick 
them up for rare orchids ! 

Wherever these snakes are found, are also found 
a number of perfectly harmless snakes, absolutely 
unlike the dangerous ones in habit and life, yet 



14 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

coloured precisely the same. The elaps fulvius, for 
example, a deadly venomous snake of Guatemala, 
has a body trimmed in simple black bands on a 
coral-red ground, and in the same country and al- 
ways with him is found a quite harmless snake, 
which is coloured and banded in the same iden- 
tical manner. The terrible and much-feared 
elaps lemnicatus has the peculiar black bands di- 
vided into divisions of three by narrow yellow rings, 
thus exactly mimicking a harmless snake, the plio- 
cerus elapoideSj both of which live in Mexico. Pre- 
sumably, the deadly variety assumes the colouring 
of the harmless kind in order to deceive intended 
victims as to his ferocity. 

Surely this is sufficient evidence that colouration 
and pattern-design is a useful camouflage device of 
the great struggle for existence. And it is safe to 
assert that any animal that has enemies and still 
does not resort to protective colouration or mimicry 
in some form is entirely able to protect itself either 
by its size, strength, ferocity, or by resorting to 
safety in numbers. Elephants and rhinoceroses, 
for example, are too powerful to be molested when 
grown, except in the rarest cases, and are further- 
more thoroughly capable of protecting their young. 
Hippopotamuses are protected by their immense 



ANIMAL CAMOUFLAGE 15 

heads, and are capable of defending their young 
from crocodiles even when in the water. 

The bison and buffalo, which were once so power- 
ful on the plains of North America, were protected 
by their gregarious habits, which terrorised their 
enemies — the wolves. Their nurseries were a fea- 
ture of their wisdom. These were circular pens 
where the tall grass was tramped down by expect- 
ant mothers for the protection of their young. This 
natural nursery was protected from the inside by 
sentinels who went round and round the pen con- 
stantly guarding the young not only from the at- 
tack of wolves but also from venturing forth alone 
too early into the open unprotected plains. In a 
similar way the snow-pens of the moose of the Far 
North serve to protect them from the hungry 
hordes of wolves of which they live in constant 
danger. This indicates that the annihilation of the 
bison and buffalo was due, not to lack of wisdom, 
but to man's inhumanity; for, taking advantage of 
their nurseries, the men crouched near and conceal- 
ing themselves in the grass killed not only the 
mothers for food but even the young in their savage 
sport. 

The large majority of monkeys are protectively 
coloured with some shade of brown or grey, with 
specially marked faces. Entire packs of Ceylonese 



16 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

species will, at the slightest alarm, become invisible 
by crouching on a palm-tree. One of the most 
strikingly coloured African monkeys is jet black 
with a white bushy tail, and a face surrounded by 
a white ring, or mantle of long silky hair. He thus 
simulates so strikingly the hanging white lichens 
upon the trees that he is rarely seen by his enemies. 

A book might be written upon the various ways 
that animals, when closely associated with other 
animals or human beings, imitate them. Darwin 
says that "two species of wolves, which had been 
reared by dogs, learned to bark, as does sometimes 
the jackall," and it is well known that certain dogs, 
when reared by cats, imitate their habits, even to 
the licking of their feet and the washing of their 
faces. If a mongrel dog associates with a trained 
dog for any period of time it is remarkable the 
progress he will make. For this same reason young 
dogs are carried on hunting trips with trained dogs 
that they may learn by imitation the art of hunting. 

In the whole realm of Nature there is nothing 
more wonderful than this matter of protective col- 
ouration. Animals do not monopolise the art. It 
extends through the whole world of living crea- 
tures. The fact that individual animals have no 
voluntary control over their own colour is eloquent 
testimony as to the existence of mysterious life 



ANIMAL CAMOUFLAGE 17 

forces and racial evolutions which are still far be- 
yond the grasp of man's understanding. To see a 
tiny chameleon adapt his colouring to his environ- 
ment, be it red, green, or yellow, in the twinkling 
of an eye, is to have seen an argument for God 
Himself. 



II 

ANIMAL MUSICIANS 

"Nay, what is Nature's self, 
But an endless strife towards 
Music, euphony, rhyme?" 

— Watson. 

THE great thinkers of the age believe that the 
world is one marvellous blending of innumer- 
able and varied voices. This unison of sound forms 
the great music of the spheres, which the poets and 
philosophers have written so much about. Even 
from a purely scientific point of view, there is no 
denying that this music exists. Aviators tell us 
that when they listen from a distance to the myriads 
of noises and sounds that arise over a great city, 
these are all apparently lost in a modulated hum 
precisely like the vibrations of an immense tuning- 
fork, and appearing as but a single tone. Thus the 
immense noise going from our world is musically 
digested into one tone, and the aviator soaring 
above the earth hears only the one sound — the 
music of the spheres. 

18 



ANIMAL MUSICIANS 19 

The deep appreciation that animals have for 
music is becoming a generally known fact among 
those who have studied them closely. Every one 
must admit that there is much truth in the old say- 
ing that "music hath charms to soothe the savage 
breast." Music is composed of vibrations, which 
act with great power upon the nervous system of 
men and animals alike. Each is affected according 
to his particular physical and mental development. 

Professor Tarchanoff has made a careful study 
of the influence of music upon men and animals. 
He has demonstrated, by means of a machine which 
carefully registers the various activities of the 
hands and fingers, that when the hands are so tired 
and fatigued that they cannot make any marks ex- 
cept a straight line on the cylinder which registers 
the movements, music will so stimulate the nerves 
as to cause all fatigue to disappear. And as soon 
as the fingers again touch the cylinder, they begin 
to draw lines of various kinds and heights, thus 
proving that the music had rested the fingers and 
placed them under control. Various kinds of music 
were used: that of a melancholy nature had pre- 
cisely the opposite effect to that of a lively, cheer- 
ful character; the nerves of the hands could either 
be contracted or expanded according to the nature 
of the music. 



20 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

Like all real scientists, Professor Tarchanoff 
does not claim to give any positive explanation of 
these facts. He believes, however, that the volun- 
tary muscles act in the same relation to the music 
as the heart — that is, that cheerful, happy music 
affects the excito-motor nerves, sets up a vibration 
in those nerves which produces cheer and good feel- 
ing; while sad, morbid music plays along the de- 
pressant nerves and produces sadness and depres- 
sion. 

In view of these facts, it is easy to see how ani- 
mals, with their nervous temperaments and ready 
response to outside stimuli, are greatly influenced 
by various kinds of music. It is scientifically recog- 
nised that music tends to increase the elimination of 
carbonic acid and increases not only the consump- 
tion of oxygen, but even the activities of the skin. 
There is no doubt that good music at meal time aids 
the digestion. 

Cats have a species of unbeautiful music all their 
own, generally produced at late hours of the night 
on the house tops, garden walls, and in the alleys 
of our dwellings. Miss Cat's songs are far too 
chromatic to be appreciated by human ears; as a 
result her concertos and solos are rarely spoken of 
by human critics. However, Nature does some- 
times produce a Tetrazzini, Alice Neilson, or Ca- 



ANIMAL MUSICIANS 21 

ruso, in the form of a cat, which really delights in 
harmonious combinations of sound. I know, for 
instance, of a cat called "Nordica" owned by Pres- 
son Miller, who apparently takes the greatest de- 
light in hearing good vocal and instrumental music. 
Another well-educated musical cat belongs to a 
friend who plays a guitar. This cat delights in 
touching the strings with his dainty, soft paws, and 
springs with delight as the notes are produced. 

The Animal World speaks of five musical cats, 
which were carried to various parts of the world and 
exhibited as "bell-ringers," and their owner made 
a fortune out of their concerts. Five bells were 
suspended from a hoop, which hung above the 
stage, and to each bell was attached a small rope. 
At a given signal, each cat would seize a bell and 
give it a pull. This was done with such perfect 
time and spirit that one might well believe it was 
the work of human musicians and not of cats. 

Cows are responsive to certain kinds of music. 
A funeral march makes them sad, and ragtime so 
disturbs them that they give but little milk. The 
newspapers claim that Charles W. Ward, who 
owns a ranch near Eureka, California, says that 
the right kind of music will increase the produc- 
tion of milk, and that he uses a phonograph in the 
dairy barn. 



22 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

A friend, who has travelled much, tells the story 
of a musical cow. He, in company with two other 
friends, was coming up a river in a small boat sing- 
ing. Just as they turned a bend, they saw a small 
brown cow, suckling her calf, along with several 
other cows in a nearby pasture. The cow seemed 
so fascinated with the music that she plunged into 
the water and waded up to her head trying to reach 
the boat. As they rowed along, she ran up and 
down the bank, cutting capers in a most astonish- 
ing manner and lowing and bellowing in testimony 
of her delight in the music. She would leap, skip, 
roll on the grass, paw up the earth, like an angry 
bull, and chase off like a playful kitten, always 
with a low plaintive bellow as a final farewell. 
These friends often rowed up the river just to see 
if the musical cow was there, and she always 
greeted them in the usual appreciative manner. 

Lions and tigers are proverbially fond of music. 
Professional trainers tell us that these animals, 
when tamed, will not do their stunts without the 
accompaniment of music. The story is told of a 
group of tigers which recently refused to perform, 
because the musicians, while the performance was 
going on, went on a strike. At once when the 
music ceased, the animals returned to their respec- 
tive seats and no amount of encouragement would 



ANIMAL MUSICIANS 23 

induce them to continue their performance. No 
amount of threats would induce them to work with- 
out music. The trainer dared not punish them too 
severely, yet he feared that if they were not forced 
to perform, they might continue to strike. But 
such was not the case, for on the morrow when the 
musicians returned they acted as never before. 

Sheep, both tame and wild, are exceedingly fond 
of music, and the shepherds of Scotland have used 
it with their sheep for ages. When the shepherd 
plays upon his flute or bagpipe, they gather around 
him and listen apparently with great satisfaction; 
when the music ceases, they wander out to feed, 
and in the evening he leads them home by the single 
strains of his flute. 

Circus horses are not only fond of music, but 
are partial to certain tunes, and demand that these 
be played while they are doing their turn. If for 
any reason the band changes the tune during a per- 
formance, they immediately refuse to go on with 
their stunts. 

The original fountain of all music was based on 
the various voices and sounds of animals — and each 
musical instrument was originally devised to imi- 
tate these sounds. For all instruments — the bass 
drum, flute, clarinet, trombone, trumpet, violin, 
and even pipe organ — an animal may be mentioned 



24 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

that owns the fundamental tones in its voice, and 
which man has imitated. Castanets, for example, 
were imitations of the rattlesnakes; the first musi- 
cal instruments of any savage tribe of men are 
made so as to represent the voices of the chief ani- 
mals of that particular locality. 

Every animal of the higher order, with the ex- 
ception of a few mute dogs that belong to very hot 
or cold climates, is possessed of some sort of musi- 
cal tone, expressive of pain or joy, and by means 
of which he can express certain emotions. Darwin 
claimed that the voice of the gibbon, while ex- 
tremely loud, was very musical; and Waterhouse 
said that this musician sang the scale with consid- 
erable accuracy, at least sufficiently well for a 
trained violinist to accompany him. 

Often when dogs hear music they howl, or at- 
tempt to sing. Some show a decided preference 
for certain kinds of music, and actually try to imi- 
tate it. Gross tells of a friend of his who had a 
dog with which he often gave performances. The 
dog would accompany his master, when he sang in 
falsetto, with howls that were unmistakably at- 
tempts at singing, and which readily adapted them- 
selves to the pitch of the tone. This was a musical 
accomplishment of which he was very proud. 

On a subject of which so little is known, there 



ANIMAL MUSICIANS 25 

are, of course, diverse opinions. Scheitlin believed 
that music is actually disagreeable to a dog, but he 
says that it may be questioned whether or not the 
dog does not in some way accompany it. And 
Romanes, the great animal authority, thought the 
same thing. He had a terrier, which accompanied 
him when he sang, and actually succeeded in fol- 
lowing the prolonged notes of the human voice with 
a certain approximation to unison. Dr. Higgins, 
a musician, claimed that his large mastiff could sing 
to the accompaniment of the organ. 

Alix gives such positive examples that they are 
really marvellous: "Pere Pardies cites the case of 
two dogs that had been taught to sing, one of them 
taking a part with his master. Pierquin de Gem- 
bloux also speaks of a poodle that could run the 
scale in tune and sing very agreeably a fine com- 
position of Mozart's My Heart It Sings at Eve" 
All the scientists in Paris, according to the same 
authority, went to see the dog belonging to Dr. 
Bennati, and hear it sing the scale, which it could 
do perfectly. 

Monkeys and apes most nearly approximate 
human musicians. In central Africa these animal 
tribes have musical centres where they congregate 
regularly for "concerts." Prof. Richard S. Gar- 
ner, the noted authority on apes and monkeys, be- 



26 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

lieves that the time has already come for the estab- 
lishment of a school for their education. He would 
have the courses beginning with a kindergarten and 
advancing through as many grades as the students 
required. Prof. Garner furthermore believes that 
we have little understanding of the gorilla, and 
points out that these animals have a very happy 
and harmonious home life, the father being highly 
domestic and delighting in the company of his wife 
and children. It is not uncommon to find five or 
six generations in a certain district of the jungle. 
Their near kin, the chimpanzees, are equally 
clannish, but more musical. They come down from 
the branches of the trees, seating themselves on the 
dry leaves and assembling like an orchestra. After 
all are ready, they begin beating the leaves with 
their hands, at first very slowly, like the quiet 
prelude to a symphony, and gradually increasing 
in tempo until the grand crescendo is reached. 
Then, as if by the direction of an invisible leader, 
the music suddenly ceases. To deny that this is to 
them a real concert would lead us into extreme 
absurdities. In this connection it is interesting to 
note that when a baby is expected in the village, 
all music ceases until after its birth, when they 
again resume their periodic musical festivals. 
Hensel verifies this observation, and tells us of 



ANIMAL MUSICIANS 27 

having seen apes come from their shelter in the 
early morning and congregate for a musical con- 
cert. "They repair," he says, "to the shelter of 
some gigantic monarch of the forest whose limbs 
offer facilities for walking exercises. The head of 
the family appropriates one of these branches and 
advances along it seriously, with elevated tail, while 
the others group themselves about him. Soon he 
gives forth soft single notes, as the lion likes to do 
when he tests the capacity of his lungs. This 
sound, which seems to be made by drawing the 
breath in and out, becomes deeper and in more 
rapid succession as the excitement of the singer 
increases. At last, when the highest pitch is 
reached, the intervals cease and the sound becomes 
a continuous roar, and at this point all the others, 
male and female, join in, and for fully ten seconds 
at a time the awful chorus sounds through the quiet 
forest. At the close the leader begins again with 
the detached sounds." 

Perhaps the most remarkable evidence of ani- 
mals showing a comprehensive intelligence of musi- 
cal pitch is demonstrated by cavalry horses. That 
they thoroughly understand it is clearly demon- 
strated by the fact that they will obey the calls of 
the bugle for cavalry evolutions without a moment's 
hesitation and with no suggestion from outside 



28 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

sources. These bugle calls are produced by a com- 
bination of four notes, each of a different pitch, and 
it is rarer to find a horse making a mistake in the 
musical orders given than it is for their masters. 

Rats and mice have a decided liking for music, 
as is attested by the fact that they appear as un- 
invited guests and also come as near the performer 
as possible. Mice, one would believe, love church 
music, for they often build their nests in pipe or- 
gans, thus being able to rear their children in both 
a musical and religious atmosphere ! There is more 
truth than imagination in the story of the Pied 
Piper of Hamelin, which illustrates how they re- 
spond to the simple charms of music. 

Even donkeys betray tendencies toward musical 
efforts, and seem to be aroused by music at least 
temporarily to a higher mental plane than Balaam 
was inclined to ascribe to his wise ass. Not all of 
them sing equally well, but in Arizona the donkey 
is known as the "desert canary." If you were to 
spend a few glorious days in the Hopi village of 
Araibi, you would hear through the still, silent 
night their long nasal bray or song, and you would 
be convinced that the term is quite appropriate. 
You may not exactly like the tune, but you will 
concede that they sing! 

Society is just awakening to the joy and the sig- 



ANIMAL MUSICIANS 29 

nificance of community art. This is everywhere 
indicated by the great growing group of people 
who come together for a common music, either as 
a chorus or an orchestra or both. But in this field 
man has not yet attained such unity of communal 
effort as have the frogs. In the great swamps of 
the world myriads of them gather from miles 
around, conscious of one purpose, and by a mar- 
vellous understanding and co-operation create for 
themselves a symphony with beauties and har- 
monies of its own, and such as to stand unrivalled 
in man's musical world. In the great chorus are 
voices from the lowest bass of the croaking bull- 
frog, squatting in the marshes, to the myriads of 
tiny green tree tenors, between which are millions of 
altos, contraltos, sopranos, coloraturas and other 
voices not yet in our musical vocabulary. These 
are accompanied by all the sounds of our orchestra 
and innumerable others of such delicate shades and 
gradations as to defy the ear of man. If we listen 
to one of these concerts, we will quickly recognise 
the tones of every familiar instrument, such as the 
drum, pipe, horn, trombone, oboe, piccolo, 'cello, 
and violin. The greatest of these musical festivals 
directly precedes the mating season, and is a dra- 
matic instance of a manifestation of an inner 



30 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

rhythm which corresponds to an external periodi- 
city. 

Among the oldest traditions of the Eastern 
world are those of snake-charming by means of 
music. I have long been interested in this strange 
phenomenon of Nature, and in company with a bril- 
liant young violinist visited a zoological park re- 
cently, and after securing permission from the head 
keeper, entered the snake-house. The violinist be- 
gan by playing a few most sympathetic chords, first 
delicate and soft, then sad, then gay, slow or tremu- 
lous. Near us, coiled in his immense cage, was a 
large cobra — the snake which all legend claims is 
most easily influenced by music. Almost imme- 
diately after the music began, the cobra raised him- 
self in a listening attitude, steadily gazed at us as 
though he were viewing the future, spread his im- 
mense hood, and slowly began to shake his head 
from side to side, as if he were trying to keep time 
to the music. As soon as the music would change, 
his attitude changed accordingly. Only after the 
music had ceased did he resume his normal position. 

The Indians agree that under the influence of 
various musical instruments, especially bagpipes, 
snake-charmers are able to get the snakes to come 
out from their homes among the old rocks and 



ANIMAL MUSICIANS 31 

walls, and when they appear they seem perfectly 
dazed so that they can be easily captured. 

It is not well to have any kind of musical instru- 
ment played, when in a forest at night where there 
are dangerous snakes, lest they come to hear it. 
Snake-hunters always carry with them some kind 
of musical instrument, depending upon the kind 
of snakes they wish to capture. It seems that all 
are not equally fascinated by it. I have experi- 
mented with little effect upon a large rattler; it 
may have been that he was deaf. But he gave little 
evidence of being interested. 

We need not feel humiliated, then, for our ani- 
mal kinspeople with their primitive music : we were 
monkeys, and before them we were reptiles, birds, 
fishes, even worms. But that was ages ago, and 
we have grown up and become better musicians. 
Evolution has chosen us as its favourites and given 
us every advantage in the struggle up the ladder of 
life. Our musical rivals of yesterday are as chorus 
people compared to Metropolitan Opera stars, with 
us. On this earth we reign supreme, we have con- 
quered the earth, air, and water, annihilating time 
and distance. What more is there for us to learn 
of Nature's secrets? Only an understanding of 
our lower brothers, the animals. 



Ill 

ANIMALS AT PLAY 

"... About them frisking played 
All beasts of the earth, since wild, and of all chase 
In wood or wilderness, forest or den; 
Sporting the lion romped, and in his paw 
Dandled the hid; bears, tigers, ounces, pards, 
Gambled before them; the unwieldy elephant, 
To make them mirth, used all his might, and wreathed 
His light proboscis." 

— Paradise Lost, 

THAT "one touch of Nature makes the whole 
world kin" is shown in no clearer way than by 
the games and play of animals. Recreation is as 
common among them as it is among our own chil- 
dren; and they seem always to be artistic and even 
skilled in their play. Young goats and lambs skip, 
jump, run races, throw flips in the air, and gam- 
bol ; calves have interesting frolics ; young colts and 
mules have biting and kicking games ; bears wrestle 
and tumble ; puppies delight in biting and tussling ; 
while kittens chase everything from spools of 
thread to their own tails. 

32 



ANIMALS AT PLAY 33 

But animal children grow up, and stop playing 
to a certain extent as age advances, precisely as 
human children do. Each settles down into a more 
practical condition of life. They dislike to have 
their games and play disturbed, and if the mother 
dog growls because her playful son has continu- 
ously tumbled over her while she was sleeping, or 
the cat-mother slaps her kitten because he plays 
with her tail — it is a display of the same kind of 
emotion that prompts a human mother to rebuke 
her child in the nursery for making too much noise, 
or for throwing toys out of the window. Animals, 
like ourselves, feel every sensation of joy, happi- 
ness, surprise, disappointment, love, hope, ambi- 
tion, and through their youthful games an entire 
index of their future lives may be obtained. 

This play has much to do with the physical and 
mental development of the animals; and it is 
strange indeed that so few writers have considered 
the subject of play in the animal world. Most of 
those who have noticed the subject at all, drop it 
with a few remarks, to the effect that it is "highly 
amusing," or "very funny," or "unbelievable," or 
"so like the play of children," without even a word 
of explanation of the whys and wherefores of it. 

All animals have some kinds of play. Plutarch 
speaks of a trained elephant that often practised 



34 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

her steps when she thought no one was looking. 
No one who has ever visited a zoological park and 
seen the crowded monkey and baboon cages can 
have failed to note the wonderful play of these 
animals. Seals seem never to tire of chasing one 
another through the water; while even the clumsy 
hippopotamuses have diving games. 

Kittens begin to tumble and play before they 
are two weeks old. They will roll and toss a ball, 
hunting it from the dark corners, lay in silent wait 
for each otlier, and suddenly spring upon an un- 
suspecting fellow-cat-baby's back, just as they will 
do later in life, when seeking their prey. I have 
seen them play with a catnip mouse for hours at 
a time, just as the mother cat plays with a real 
mouse. 

Brehm says that this is noticed in their earliest 
kittenhood, and that the mother cat encourages it 
in all ways possible, even to becoming a child with 
her children from love of them, as a human mother 
does in the nursery with her child. The mother 
cat begins the play by slowly moving her tail. 
Gesner considered her tail as the indicator of her 
moods. The kittens, while they may not under- 
stand what this means, are greatly excited by the 
movement, their eyes sparkle, their ears stand 
erect, and slowly one after another clutches after 




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ANIMALS AT PLAY 35 

the moving tail. Suddenly, one springs over the 
mother's back, another grabs at her feet, while a 
third playfully slaps her in the face with his tiny, 
soft, cushioned paw. She, patiently and mother- 
like, lovingly submits to ail this treatment, as it is 
only play. 

Many scientists have claimed that this so-called 
instinct should not be classed as real play. How- 
ever, such an authority as Darwin thought it was 
play, and Scheitlin said that the cat let the mouse 
loose many times in order that she might have the 
experience of catching it each time. No mercy is 
shown the helpless mouse, which is the same to her 
as the toy ball — in the same way as a real beetle 
and a toy beetle are the same to a small child. Evi- 
dently the cat does not play with the mouse for the 
delight in torturing it, but purely for practice that 
she may become skilled in the art of catching it. 
The cat also exercises in springing movements, and 
by studying the mouse's probable movements, 
learns to acquire a knowledge and skill in mouse- 
ways otherwise impossible. 

The same cruel practice is found among leopards, 
panthers, and wild cats. Brehm verifies the ob- 
servation that many members of the cat family 
practise torturing their victims in a horrible man- 
ner, pretending to liberate them, until the poor 



36 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

creatures at last die from their wounds. Lenz tells 
of a marten that would play with its prey for hours 
when not hungry. Especially was this true when 
marmots chanced to be his victims, and around 
these he would leap and spring, dealing them ter- 
rific blows first with one paw and then with the 
other. When hungry, however, he proceeded dif- 
ferently, devouring them at once from teeth to tail. 

All the cat family, it seems, are fond of human 
companionship, and take almost as much delight 
in playing with human beings as with their own 
kind. This is especially true of the puma. Brehm 
tells of a tame one that delighted in hiding at the 
approach of his master and springing out unex- 
pectedly, just as the lion does. Hudson claimed 
that the puma, with the exception of the monkey, 
was possibly the most playful of all animals. 
Travellers tell many interesting tales of the play of 
these animals, especially on the Pampas of South 
America. 

Gross relates the experience of an Englishman 
who was compelled to spend the night outdoors on 
the Pampas of the La Plata. At about nine 
o'clock, on a bright moonlight night, he saw four 
pumas coming toward him, two adult animals and 
two young ones. He well knew that these animals 
would not attack him, so he quietly waited. In a 



ANIMALS AT PLAY 37 

short time they approached him, chasing one an- 
other and playing hide-and-seek like little kittens ; 
and finally leaped directly over the man several 
times. The mother cat would run ahead, calling 
to the little ones to follow her. But she never dis- 
turbed him. 

At times an animal at play with another uses 
the same tactics and methods employed on its prey. 
Of course, the value of such practice for the tasks 
of later-life is evident. Dogs play hide-and-seek, 
tag, and various chasing games for hours without 
resting. Among the negroes of the South it is not 
uncommon to see a hound playing hide-and-seek 
with the little pickaninnies. I have seen a hound 
peeping in and out among a pile of brush to dis- 
cover where the little ones were hiding, and at the 
first sight of a little black face, he would lay low 
in anticipation of a playful spring, or a sudden 
dash-away, with the expectation of being chased 
by his friends. At times he would suddenly dis- 
appear toward his home, and slyly slip around and 
approach the playground from an opposite direc- 
tion. 

Every one who has owned fox terriers knows how / 

they will crouch in the open grass and remain mo- 
tionless, with quivering expectation for the other 
playfellow to arrive, and when the one in ambush 



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38 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

sees the other coming he springs toward him, as 
though he were going to destroy him! And when 
the two come together, they attempt to seize each 
other by the necks, as they would do in a real con- 
flict. A wrestle and tussle ensues and when ut- 
terly exhausted from this play, the tired dogs, like 
two fatigued children, run to their homes. 

Dogs are fond of playing ball, and will readily 
bring a ball or stick to their master when he has 
thrown it. They will also go into the water to 
bring out sticks that may have been tossed in for 
amusement. Eugene Zimmerman had a young fox 
terrier that would set a ball in motion, when there 
was no one to pitch it for him, by seizing it in his 
mouth and tossing it up in the air. Monkeys and 
jaguars will also play ball, and tame bears take 
great delight in wrestling, playing ball, and fight- 
ing mock battles. 

Beckmann wonderfully describes the play of a 
badger, whose only playmate was an exceptionally 
clever dog, who from his earliest youth had been 
taught to live with different kinds of animals. 
"Together they went through a series of gymnas- 
tic exercises on pleasant afternoons, and their four- 
footed friends came from far and near to witness 
the performance. The essentials of the game were 
that the badger, roaring and shaking his head like 



ANIMALS AT PLAY 39 

a wild boar, should charge upon the dog, as it stood 
about fifteen paces off, and strike him in the side 
with its head ; the dog, leaping dexterously entirely 
over the badger, awaited a second and third attack, 
and then made his antagonist chase him all round 
the garden. If the badger managed to snap the 
dog's hindquarters, an angry tussle ensued, but 
never resulted in a real fight. If Caspar, the bad- 
ger, lost his temper, he drew off without turning 
round, and got up snorting and shaking and with 
bristling hair, and strutted about like an inflated 
turkey-cock. After a few moments his hair would 
smooth down, and with some head-shaking and 
good-natured grunts the mad play would begin 
again." 

Young animals are strikingly like children in 
their craving for amusement. A young bear will 
lie on his back and play with his feet and toes by 
the hour, while a young pup can have a great game 
with only a dry bone, or by chasing his shadow on 
the wall. Rabbits come out in evenings on the 
sand-hills to play hide-and-seek with their young, 
and squirrels never weary of this universally pop- 
ular game. I know of a young fox that used to 
come from a nearby woods every evening to play 
with a young fox-terrier. They became great 
friends and were often seen in the woods together. 



40 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

A friend who owns a ranch in Texas once raised 
two young wolves that romped and played with 
the neighbour's dogs just as if they were dogs 
themselves. There are other animals, like the 
weasels, that will also play with strange friends. 
But they prefer their own kind as playmates. 
They take the greatest delight in playing with 
their parents, and nothing is more beautiful or 
strange than to see several of them playing in a 
valley on a sunny day. Out pops one little head, 
with twinkling eyes glancing from side to side, 
and then as if from nowhere, the little brothers 
and sisters begin to appear, chasing each other as 
though they were playing tag. These exercises 
give them much agility which they will need in later 
life. 

I once owned a tame raccoon, and often kept 
him chained in the back yard. When he could not 
find a young chicken or duck to torment, he de- 
vised all kinds of schemes to relieve the monotonous 
hours. He would pile up a number of small stones, 
and carefully await his chance to fling one into a 
group of young chickens. He seemed to under- 
stand that he was more apt to make a hit when he 
threw into a crowd than when aiming at a single 
chick. At other times he would lie on his back, 
madly waving his tail as though he were signalling 



ANIMALS AT PLAY 41 

for some one to come near. If we chanced to pass 
by without speaking, he would growl or whine in 
some way to attract attention. After hours of self- 
amusement he would lie down as if life were useless, 
and wait until something or somebody came along 
to amuse him. His greatest delight was in fishing 
things out of a pan of water, and he would wash 
every pebble or plaything that he owned and care- 
fully lay it out to dry. One day he pounced upon 
a rooster who insulted him by drinking from his 
water vessel, and plucked a long feather from his 
tail so quickly that we could hardly realise what 
had taken place. He then had great fun in at- 
tempting to stick the feather in his head or by 
planting it upright in the ground. Another day, 
in winter, he broke his chain and made straight for 
the kitchen, where he found a snug warm place in 
old Aunt Moriah's kitchen oven. The old negress 
came to cook dinner and when the raccoon sud- 
denly sprang out of her oven, she vowed, "I'se 
nevah gwine to cook in dis heah kitchen again; dis 
place is hoodooed fo' life!" 

Once we gave him a pail of hot milk, and it was 
evidently hotter than we realised; he started to 
drink it, and suddenly stopped, and in anger 
grabbed at a very young puppy that was following 
us, and before we could stop him, dipped the 



42 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

puppy's head into the hot milk. Fortunately, how- 
ever, the milk was not hot enough to injure the 
puppy. But the raccoon had taken his revenge out 
on the little animal, and was evidently satisfied. 

It is interesting to note that all animals seem to 
play games and take exercises that will be espe- 
cially helpful to them in later life. Badgers, for 
example, delight in turning somersaults; deer like 
to jump and leap; foxes and raccoons practise 
stealing upon one unnoticed; tapirs and crocodiles 
play in the water as night approaches; mountain 
goats, sheep, horses and mules run, leap, jump, 
and play follow-leader. Animals that live in the 
high mountains practise all kinds of high- jumps, 
which would be unnecessary if they lived on level 
ground, but are highly essential in mountainous 
countries. 

Brehm claims that in summer the chamois climb 
up to the everlasting snow and take much delight 
in playing in it. They will drop into a crouching 
position on the top of a very steep mountain, work 
their four legs with a swimming motion, and slide 
down on the surface of the snow for a hundred and 
fifty metres. As they slide down the snow flies 
over them like a fine powder. As soon as they 
reach the bottom, they jump to their feet, and 
slowly climb up the mountain- side again, while 



ANIMALS AT PLAY 43 

many of their comrades silently stand by and watch 
their coasting approvingly, first one and then an- 
other joining in the sport, like human coasters 
would do. It is not uncommon for a number of 
them to tumble together at the bottom, like romp- 
ing children. This coasting is very remarkable, 
and through skill in it, no doubt, the lives of many 
chamois are saved from frightful accidents later in 
life. Alix tells us that dogs of mountainous coun- 
tries are also often skilled in the art of coasting. 

Our tame fawn used to delight in playing with 
our old rabbit-dog, Nimrod. They were the best 
of friends, and the fawn would begin the chase by 
approaching Nimrod as though he were going to 
stamp him into the earth, and then suddenly leap- 
ing quickly and safely over the dog, he would run 
away. At this signal for a game, if Nimrod was 
in the mood, he chased the fawn, who would delight 
in jumping over fences and hedges and waiting 
for poor Nimrod to get over or under just in time 
to see his playmate leap to the other side. 

Wolves, if taken when quite young, have a most 
unique way of showing their affection at the ap- 
pearance of their master. They will spring into 
the air, tumbling over, with whinnying cries of de- 
light, falling to the ground they pretend to bite 



44 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

and snap at everything, until their friend finally 
comes very near them. 

Prairie dogs are fond of all kinds of races and 
jumping games; they will each appear at the en- 
trance to their underground homes, and will play 
a simple form of prisoners'-base for long periods 
of time. With defiant calls at each other, one 
finally approaches the home of the other, which is 
a signal for the third to attempt to slip into the 
entrance to the second one's home before he can 
return. Many join in the game and it usually ends 
in a regular roll-and-tumble for their respective 
homes. 

Perhaps the strangest of all forms of play is 
that in which young duckbills indulge. They are 
slightly like puppies in their methods of roll-and- 
tumble, but the way in which they grab one an- 
other with their strange bills, as they strike with 
their forepaws is quite original. They seem to have 
an unusually good disposition, and if one little 
playfellow falls in the game, and desires to scratch 
himself before arising, the other patiently waits 
until he arises, when the mock battle begins anew. 

Antelopes have chase and marching games which 
are beautiful. They seem rapidly to follow an in- 
visible leader over the plains, suddenly forming 
themselves into pairs, fours, eights, sixteens, until 



ANIMALS AT PLAY 45 

the entire herd thus form one line, like an army of 
soldiers marching. While this game is progressing, 
certain of their number stand as sentinels and spec- 
tators, and the slightest approach of an enemy is 
the signal for all play to cease, and for them to 
disappear over the plains. 

When we witness these abundant evidences of 
the need and prevalence of recreation in the animal 
world, we are confronted with one more argument 
for the existence of real mental and moral faculties 
among our four-footed friends. 



IV 

ARMOUR-BEARING AND MAIL-CLAD ANIMALS 

"The spectacle of Nature is always new, for she is always 
renewing the spectators. Life is her most exquisite inven- 
tion; and death is her expert contrivance to get plenty of life." 
— Goethe's Aphorisms (trans, by Huxley). 

CIVILISED nations throughout the world at 
different times in their country's history have 
protected their soldiers and warriors with coats of 
armour or mail. This practice prevailed extensively 
during the Middle Ages ; but it has almost entirely 
disappeared. The German breastplates of to- 
day are an attempted revival. The coats of mail 
of the ancient warriors underwent an evolutionary 
process, until they were indeed brought to a high 
pitch of perfection and beauty. It was at this pe- 
riod that they were abandoned as too burdensome 
to be of practical value. 

This protective form of armour has been used 
by animals since time immemorial, and was copied 
by man from them; and among the various forms 
of it are found examples of every kind of armour 

46 



MAIL-CLAD ANIMALS 47 

used in the human world, from the rough leather 
shields of hide which the savages use, to the orna- 
mental suits of mail, like those used by the knights 
of the fifteenth century. Indeed, some animals 
have carried the art of protection to such an extent 
that they are veritable movable forts, or "tanks!" 

In the early part of the earth's history, animals 
needed greater protection from powerful enemies 
than they do at present, and they developed a coat 
of mail, exquisite in appearance and even more 
efficient than that used by man. Yet, like man- 
kind, they have found newer and more efficient 
methods of protection, and as a result of changed 
conditions and enemies, have discarded, at least 
most of them, their coats of mail and armour. 
Most of those who have held to the old-fashioned 
ways of fighting and facing the world, have, like 
unprogressive peoples, perished; and to-day only 
a few armour-bearing animals exist. These classes, 
however, have never been very large, and consist of 
two small families; the pangolins and the arma- 
dillos. The former live in southern Asia and 
Africa, while the latter are inhabitants of South 
America. 

These animals have a great advantage over man, 
for their armour grows upon their bodies and is a 
part of them, while man must put his on and take 



48 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

it off and continually replace the worn-out parts. 
Again, while there are only three distinct kinds of 
human armour — the chain, scale and plate armour 
— there are many kinds of animal armour. What 
wonderful opportunities exist to-day in the great 
museums for studying the different kinds of animal 
armour, for those who are interested ! 

The scaly ant-eater, who is at home in Africa 
and Asia, is one of the most unusual and original 
types of mail-clad animals. He might be com- 
pared to a wolf in outline, covered from head to 
tail in huge, horny plates, which look like immense 
finger-nails overlapping each other. His head 
sharpens out into a long, narrow snout, which con- 
tains a sticky, worm-like tongue, and this he can 
use with great rapidity and effect in raiding an ant- 
hill. He drops his tongue over the entrance, and 
the ants attempt to crawl over it and are glued to 
it. He walks in a very unique way by going upon 
the backs of his feet. This preserves his wonderful 
claws for bursting open ants' nests, as his chief food 
consists of these tiny insects and their eggs. 

A cousin of the scaly ant-eater, the great ant- 
eater of South America, has the same general 
habits of his near-kinsman. He has an immense 
bushy tail with which some naturalists claim he 
sweeps up ants. This is not true, however ; he uses 



MAIL-CLAD ANIMALS 49 

his tail, when he lies down, to cover himself. The 
hairs of the tail part in such a manner as to fall 
over the body like a thatched roof, protecting it 
from rain and storm alike. 

A part of the head and under portion of this ant- 
eater's body are unprotected, and this is why he 
rolls himself up like a ball when danger is near. 
In this position, his scales stand out in such a way 
as to make a complete row of sharp points, as un- 
inviting as the wires on a barbed wire fence. Yet, 
it is claimed that certain of his enemies, like the 
leopard, know his one great weakness — a terror of 
being wet — and often make him uncoil by rolling 
him into the water. His coat of hard covering is 
really compact masses of hardened hair drawn out 
to sharp dagger points, and might be likened to 
pine cones endued with power. Through ages of 
experience, the scaly ant-eater has learned that 
even his powerful coat of protection is not alto- 
gether a success in life's battles, and from time to 
time his armour has been made lighter and lighter, 
and because he has been so slow in making the nec- 
essary changes, he is to-day very scarce, and able 
only by the greatest caution to drag out a dull 
existence as a nocturnal and burrowing animal. 
It would seem that with such powerful protection 
as he originally had, he would have outlived the 



50 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

puny armadillos, but his fast disappearance proves 
that the race is not always to the swift, nor the 
battle to the strong. 

Among the animals which have discarded their 
old-fashioned coats of mail, and have successfully 
protected themselves against all enemies, may be 
mentioned the frogs, newts, and their kinspeople, 
the reptiles. These latter, the learned, with their 
delight in multiplying terms, have classed as am- 
phibians. During the period when the coal forests 
were growing over what we now know as England, 
there were innumerable amphibians, and even to- 
day their petrified footmarks are found in sand- 
stone. The underside of their chests were covered 
with large bony plates, and in some cases the rest 
of the body was covered with scale-like bones. Yet, 
all the newts and frogs of to-day have wisely dis- 
carded the old coats of armour used by their fore- 
fathers. 

The armadillo has an armour of quite another 
kind, notwithstanding the fact that pangolins and 
armadillos belong to the same great family, and 
each eats ants. Their plates of armour, or shields, 
have nothing at all to do with the hair, nor do they 
have anything to do with the exo- skeleton ; they 
are formed of bone material, which appears in the 
true skin in the form of tiny shields, and each shield 




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MAIL-CLAD ANIMALS 51 

is itself covered with a hard plate which grows in 
the outer skin. The actual formation of these 
shields differs largely in the various species of 
armadillo. 

It is well to remember that the pangolins and 
armadillos are the last survivors of a great and 
ancient family of armour-bearers. Many of their 
remote ancestors have been found in the rocks and 
hills of South America, and all of their representa- 
tives of to-day are small animals — the last of a 
doomed race — creatures of yesterday. The glypto- 
don is known to have been more than eleven feet in 
length, and his near-kinsman, the chlamydothere, 
was even larger. He was nearly the size of our 
present-day rhinoceros. These extinct giants car- 
ried on their backs huge domes of bony plates, that 
must have rivalled our much-feared tanks, of trench 
war fame. One would think they were invulner- 
able, yet the glyptodon and the chlamydothere, 
with many other equally well protected creatures, 
have long ago disappeared from the earth, but how 
and why nobody knows. This total disappearance 
of these marvellously protected giants, which 
seemed capable of defending themselves against 
any and all kinds of enemies that might have arisen, 
is one of the strangest and most unsolvable prob- 
lems of science. 



52 THE HUMAN SIDE OE ANIMALS 

Another mail-clad animal of importance is the 
armadillo of the tropical and temperate regions of 
South America. He is nocturnal in habits, sleep- 
ing in his underground home during the day, and 
coming out at night to seek for food. This under- 
ground home is rather large, and the nursery is 
well protected from enemies by its location. In it 
the mother armadillo rears her young until they are 
large enough to care for themselves. 

All species of the armadillos are powerful bur- 
rowers, and they are well equipped for their tun- 
nelling in the earth with strong fore limbs. They 
feed upon all kinds of insects and animal sub- 
stances. It is claimed that the giant armadillo is 
a veritable grave-robber and sometimes digs up 
dead bodies for the purpose of eating them. 

These animals are plentiful upon the savannas 
of South America, and they feast upon the bodies 
of dead cattle. So hard are their coats of armour 
that the Gauchos sharpen their Spanish knives, 
which they always carry, upon them. Should the 
armadillo be attacked by a man on horseback, he 
Mall burrow so rapidly that only by the quickest 
movements of the man can he be caught ; and if he 
is, watch out for his terrible claws! 

No animal is better protected by nature from its 
enemies than the pichiciago, whose scientific name 



MAIL-CLAD ANIMALS 53 

is chlamyphorus truncatus. This strange little 
mantle-bearer wears a coat of mail which is as flex- 
ible as the human-made coats of armour of olden 
times, and he is as safe under its cover, which al- 
lows him perfect freedom, as if he were under the 
ground. He is about the size of the ordinary mole, 
and his general habits are not unlike those of the 
mole. He is an underground-dweller, with enor- 
mous fore-paws, palm-shaped, upon which are five 
powerful claws. These he uses to great advantage 
in digging in the earth for insects and for building 
his home. He has a small snout, reminding one of 
that of a pig; while his piercing little eyes are 
deeply hidden in his fur. He is a native of Chile, 
and because of his shy nature and subterranean 
habits is rarely seen. 

The most interesting feature about this little 
creature is the cuirass which so perfectly protects 
his body. Its formation and arrangement is quite 
unusual ; it appears like a number of squared plates 
of horn, tightly united to short strips of tape, which 
are sewed together. The cuirass is not connected 
with the entire body of the animal, but only on the 
top of the head and along the spine. It covers the 
entire back, and when it reaches the tail, turns 
downward, forming a perfect flap, which protects 
the hindquarters. 



54 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

The various species of manis are famed for their 
powerful coats of armour. They, also, belong to 
the great group of burrowers, and their coats of 
mail assume both offensive and defensive char- 
acters. These mail-bearers are covered with nu- 
merous sharp -edged scales, like miniature horns, 
which entirely overlap one another, like shingles on 
a house. They are of great hardness, and form a 
belt which no animal of their regions can penetrate. 
A revolver shot will produce not the slightest effect 
upon the body of this iron-protected animal. 

These animals are plentiful in India, and when 
they are molested, they deliberately wind them- 
selves up, coil their tails over their bodies, and re- 
main in conscious security against the fruitless 
blows of their enemies, who soon weary of the 
wounds caused from the prickly scales of impene- 
trable armour. 

Instead of wearing heavy coats of mail, certain 
animals, such as the hedgehog and porcupine, pre- 
fer to wear coats covered with needles and pins. Of 
course, a coat of spines is used purely for protec- 
tion. And against the attacks of such enemies as 
dogs, it proves all-sufficient, but it is a well-known 
fact that pumas and leopards will kill and eat por- 
cupines at all times, paying small attention to their 
spines, as is shown by the number which are some- 






MAIL-CLAD ANIMALS 55 

times found sticking in the body of a porcupine- 
eating animal. 

There are several species of this great spine- 
bearing family; and many of them, especially the 
true porcupines and the echidnas, have burrows in 
the ground and thus have a double means of pro- 
tecting themselves. But others, such as the hedge- 
hog, depend for their protection upon their ability 
to roll up into a ball, thus presenting a barbed wire 
protection. Still others live largely in the trees 
and seek by other means to protect themselves. 

One of the most interesting coats of armour is 
that worn by the porcupine ant-eater — ofttimes 
erroneously called porcupine or hedgehog. He is 
a native of Australia, and is a powerful burrower. 
He is marvellously protected by means of a coat 
of needles or spines which inflict painful wounds on 
the dog or other enemy that ventures to attack him. 
In case of danger, he curls himself up into a ball, 
and defies any one to come near. Not only does 
he possess the coat of prickles with which he de- 
fends himself, but he also has a large perforated 
claw or spur on each hind foot through which pours 
an ill-smelling liquid, and these also aid in protect- 
ing him. There are several varieties of porcupines 
which inhabit Asia, Africa, Southern Europe and 
'America. 



56 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

When a porcupine wishes to attack an enemy, 
he rushes at it backwards, and usually leaves the 
enemy literally covered, like a living pin-cushion, 
with his spines. These animals have convex skulls, 
short tails, and live chiefly in the warmer regions 
of the Old World. Those of America are different 
in one particular — the soles of their feet are cov- 
ered with hard, bone-like tubercles, instead of being 
soft and smooth; there are also a number of hairs 
that are intermingled with the spines. The Canada 
porcupine has more hairs than the American, and 
a shorter and stumpier tail. 

Another animal whose methods of defence are 
by means of his spines, is the hedgehog. His spines 
do not terminate in sharp points, like those of the 
porcupine, but end in tiny knobs. These are placed 
beneath the skin, and are like pins stuck through a 
cushion. The hedgehog, like the porcupine, rolls 
himself into a ball when attacked by enemies, and 
he has the additional ability of throwing himself 
down a hillside, like a rolling ball, and thus escap- 
ing his enemies without injury to himself. It 
would seem that the hedgehog, rolled into a ball 
and covered with prickles, would be protected from 
all enemies. But this is not true, for the clever fox 
knows just how to make him unroll. This one 
secret of the hedgehog's weakness very often causes 



MAIL-CLAD ANIMALS 57 

his loss of life. His weakness is a terror of being 
wet or dropped into water ; and when the fox finds 
him all rolled up, he carefully rolls him into a pond 
of water and, when he unrolls, quickly drowns him. 
Notwithstanding the shortness of the hedgehog's 
spines, he is the most highly specialised of all spine- 
bearing animals. In the lower order of animals 
there are spiny mice and spiny rats, and even the 
horned toad uses his horns as a means of protection 
against his enemies. 

One of the most peculiarly armoured animals is 
the horned lizard, commonly known as the "horned 
toad" of America. His body is covered with small 
spiny scales, while the chisel-shaped head has a 
circlet of miniature horns. These he uses when 
attacked by enemies to shield himself against bites 
and knocks. The Indians claim that if a snake 
swallows the horned lizard whole, the lizard will 
immediately work his way through the snake. This 
would not be without a parallel, however, for it is 
generally known that box-fishes, when swallowed 
by sharks, bite their way out ! 

Nature has been especially kind to horned liz- 
ards, and that is the reason there are so many of 
them. They well know the secret of the Gyges 
ring, and can put on the garment of invisibility in 
a very short time. They especially frequent the 



58 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

desert regions of the South and West; and those 
that dwell in black sandy regions are black; those 
of red clay regions are red; those of grey regions, 
grey; those from the variously coloured regions of 
blue and red are precisely the colour of the earth. 
But not satisfied with all their protections of ar- 
mour and camouflage, they actually, when hard- 
pressed by an enemy, feign death, like an opossum! 
And if the enemy persists in his attack, and Mr. 
Lizard cannot escape, as a final effort he spurts 
tears of blood from his eyes. The Mexicans call 
him the * 'sacred toad." The phenomenon of blood- 
shooting has been explained in various ways, all of 
which seem equally unsatisfactory. So far it is one 
of Nature's secrets. Perhaps some day we may 
understand it. 

The tortoises are among the best examples of 
creatures which to-day protect themselves with ar- 
mour. They are, of course, reptiles, yet in the gen- 
eral formation of their armour, they are strikingly 
like armadillos. The tortoise has his armour so ar- 
ranged over his body that it forms one big box. 
He draws his head and limbs into this whenever 
danger is near. In Texas recently I found a small 
land terrapin, and as soon as I came near, he closed 
his house. I picked him up, and then carefully laid 
him upside down on the ground, and stepped be- 



MAIL-CLAD ANIMALS 59 

hind some nearby bushes to see what he would do. 
Immediately he poked his head out, and then his 
feet, and then he began to wave his feet wildly in 
air, and finally threw himself in the right position 
and hastened away through the grass. 

The turtle protects himself in the same way, and 
draws his head, feet, and tail under his own house- 
roof where nothing can get him. 

Lobsters and crabs are excellent types of armour- 
bearing animals. Lobsters wear marvellous coats 
of mail, very similar to those worn by human war- 
riors during the age of chivalry. Their jointed 
structure assures them perfect ease and security. 
Crabs, however, believe, as the tortoise, in the 
strong-box protection. When resting, crabs tuck 
their legs beneath them, so as to shelter themselves 
under the hard covering. Upon crabs Nature has 
bestowed twin protective characteristics: namely, 
they are armoured, and also mimic their surround- 
ings. The latter protection is especially needful, 
because certain big fishes, like the cod, are in the 
habit of swallowing crabs whole. In this case the 
armour is of no use, while the protective resem- 
blance saves the crab. 

To discuss in detail all the various kinds of ar- 
mour and mail that the different groups of animals 
have used and developed for offensive and defen- 



60 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

sive purposes since the days of the prehistoric gi- 
gantic armadillos to the present, would require a 
book of itself. It is sufficient to know that armour 
and mail and spines are among Nature's most com- 
mon forms of protection, and that each age de- 
velops new and ever more efficient methods of de- 
fence. This simply means that the age-long drama 
of evolution is always changing. Everything that 
is came out of that which was, and throughout the 
ages the ever-evolving organisms have been devel- 
oping out of the past, that they might ever be new. 



MINERS AND EXCAVATORS 

"When the cold winter comes and the water plants die, 

And the little brooks yield no further supply, 

Down in his burrow he cozily creeps, 

And quietly through the long winter sleeps." 

—(The Water Bat.) 

np HERE are many ground-dwellers in the ani- 
* mal world, and foremost among them is the 
mole. This remarkable little creature is not only 
gifted as a digger of canals and tunnels, but plans 
and makes the most extraordinary subterranean 
homes. Sometimes he unites with his fellow crea- 
tures and establishes whole cities with winding pas- 
sages, chambers, exits and entrances. In fact, he 
has not only an exquisitely arranged home, but 
highways and roads that lead to his kingly hunting- 
grounds which are as elaborate as that of a modern 
man of wealth and culture. Indeed his subterra- 
nean network of tunnels excels in complexity our 
modern city subways. His engineering calcula- 
tions never fail, and a cave-in of his hallways is un- 

61 



62 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

known. This little gentleman with the velvet coat 
is a genius of varied accomplishments ! 

But this is only true when the mole is in his 
proper sphere or home. There he can fight like a 
tiger, catch his prey both below and above ground, 
build wells to collect and retain water, swim like a 
fish, and do many things which would seem impos- 
sible, judging from his awkward and clumsy man- 
ner above ground. 

His apparent awkwardness while out of his nat- 
ural habitat is largely due to the peculiar formation 
of his limbs, and the stupid appearance of his small 
half-hidden eyes. These features seem to mark 
him to the casual observer as a dull animal, yet in 
reality he is very active and bright, and when at 
home displays his marvellous genius in many ways ! 
His upturned hands become powerful shovels, and 
by the aid of an extra bone, the sickle, which be- 
longs to the inside of the thumb, he is enabled to 
work like an athlete. His velvet-like hair stands 
straight up, like the pile on velvet, and his tiny 
eyes are so hidden by hair that they do not get in- 
jured. The eyes are not well finished from an op- 
tician's point of view — but they serve admirably 
all the needs of the mole's life. As dull and stu- 
pid as he appears, he is, considering his size, the 
fiercest and most active animal in existence. Imag- 



MINERS AND EXCAVATORS 63 

ine him the size of a wild cat ! He would be a beast 
of exceeding ferocity. Even a lion would find him 
a formidable antagonist. With such an animal 
tunnelling in his fields and cellars, man would have 
a terror hard to exterminate. 

The mole is an engineer and miner who seems to 
have a strange sense of direction practically un- 
known to many other animals. How he manages 
to form tunnels and burrows in lines of such un- 
usual straightness is unknown; he always works in 
darkness, unless it is that he can see in the dark. 
His little hills are not deliberate structures; they 
are only shaft ends through which this miner throws 
out the earth that he has scooped from subterra- 
nean depths, and in most cases smoothed out so 
that if an observer examines the burrow he will 
find only solid earth, and a road into his tunnel 
which leads to his real habitation. 

The home of the mole is usually beneath a tree 
or hillock, and reminds one of a miniature city of 
tunnels and engineering feats. The main, or cen- 
tral, room is shaped like a great dome, the upper 
part of which is level with the earth around the hill, 
and therefore nowhere near its apex. Mr. Wood 
has verified the observation that around the keep 
are two circular passages, one of which is level with 
the ceiling, while the other is above. The upper 



64 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

circle is decidedly smaller than the lower ; and there 
are five ascending passages which connect the gal- 
leries with each other. There is only one entrance, 
however, and from it three roads lead into the up- 
per part of the keep. When a mole enters the 
house from one of the tunnels, he must go through 
the basement in order to get to the upper part of 
the house and so descend into the keep. There is 
still another entrance into the keep from below. 
One passage leads downward directly from the 
middle of the chamber, then curving upward, leads 
into a larger tunnel or subway. 

Throughout the vast network of tunnels every 
inch of wall space seems quite smooth and polished. 
This is due to the continuous pressure of the mole's 
fur against the walls. Thus there is little danger 
of the walls collapsing even after a rain-storm. 
No human being knows just why the mole has such 
a complex system of underground streets and tun- 
nels; perhaps it is because he finds that a greater 
feeling of safety surrounds his home when he 
knows that in case of danger he can escape in a 
dozen directions. Surely he is the original builder 
of labyrinths ! 

How marvellous that so tiny a creature can build 
such a fortress! The complex chambers and cir- 
cular galleries do justice to an artist. The space 



MINERS AND EXCAVATORS, 65 

of ground covered by a single mole's roads and gal- 
leries is almost unbelievable; in every direction 
from the fortress they run, and are sunk at vari- 
ous depths, according to the condition of the mole's 
hunting-grounds, which are really the spaces of 
ground through which he tunnels. Worms and 
underground insects are his chief food. Some- 
times he ploughs along the surface of the ground, 
and exposes his back as he works ; but if the weather 
is dry, he ploughs deeply into the earth for worms. 
He fills his store-house with earth-worms for win- 
ter use, and he finds it necessary to bite their heads 
off, which leaves them inert but not dead. This 
cannot be done in the summer months without the 
heads re-growing and the worms crawling away. 
The mole knows the exact temperature best suited 
for keeping his meat fresh ! 

A most interesting and beautiful family of 
miner-cousins of the moles are the shrews. They 
are excavators of great ability, and because of their 
nocturnal habits are rarely seen alive. They are 
very similar to the mole, though much more hand- 
some. Their domicile is built of dry grass at the 
end of a tunnel. 

The shrew mole of North America is a ground- 
digger of great ingenuity. He is second only to 
the mole in the extent and pretensions of his en- 



66 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

gineering and tunnelling. His eyes are very small 
and deeply hidden in his fur. During the day he 
constantly comes to the surface of the earth, and 
one may catch him by driving a hoe or spade un- 
derneath him. 

Another underground-dweller is the elephant 
shrew of South America. He has a long nose, 
thick fur, short ears, and, unlike his cousins, he 
loves to bask in the warm sunshine. At the least 
signal of alarm he darts away to his subterranean 
home. As a mining engineer he is unexcelled; he 
sinks his tunnels by first boring an almost perpen- 
dicular shaft, and then making his burrows at an 
angle. It is a sad day for earth-worms when he 
decides to locate in their vicinity! 

It is not an easy task to classify the homes of 
animals. Many of them have characteristics that 
entitle them to be placed under several groupings. 
The otter, for example, might be classed as a cave- 
dweller, as he seeks refuge in caves; yet he also 
rears his young in underground nests as a burrow- 
ing animal. But few naturalists believe that he 
does his own digging. This is not surprising when 
we remember that there are many other animals 
that live in caves and grottoes, and like the otter, 
seek ready-made homes for their convenience. 
Among these may be mentioned three American 



MINERS AND EXCAVATORS 67 

salamanders, bats, and a few strange mice, who 
seek darkness and constant temperature, and 
therefore find caves best suited to their needs. 

The same is true of the weasel, who is thought 
to be a great burrower, but in fact, like our remote 
cave-dwelling ancestors, makes his home only in 
caves, in rocky crevices, and under the gnarled 
roots of old trees. He is a bright-eyed little crea- 
ture, with a slender snake-like neck and red body. 
He is a great friend of mankind, as he does more 
toward eradicating mice and other nocturnal dep- 
redators than all the rat-catchers in the land. His 
home is quite ordinary compared to that of the 
more ambitious underground-dwellers. 

A near cousin of the weasel, and a most ingen- 
ious engineer and miner, is the badger. He is a 
tenement-dweller and builds his home in the deep, 
shady woods. His home is rather pretentious with 
several chambers, and a most delightfully fur- 
nished nursery which is warmly padded with dry 
grass and moss. 

The badger, once so plentiful in England and 
America, is fast passing away because of the in- 
crease of towns and cities. As soon as the forest 
in which he dwells is drained and converted into 
farm land, the badger disappears. He is driven 
from the soil where he once held sway, and is one 



68 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

of those unfortunate animals which are eliminated 
by man-made civilisation. 

The fox of the Far North is a famous excavator, 
and his underground home which shelters and pro- 
tects him from the extreme cold is most spacious. 
It is a strange fact that these cunning little ani- 
mals rarely make their homes away from others 
of their kind. Sometimes twenty to thirty are 
found in close proximity. And their owners are 
unquestionably the smartest, keenest, and quickest 
creatures that roam the wilds. While some of their 
deeds are questionable, their quick wits and nim- 
ble bodies excite our admiration. 

These arctic foxes really build small cities, and 
their semi-social life may be accounted for by the 
peculiar suitability of the place which they select 
for a habitation. Their homes are usually in a 
sandy hill, where it is very easy for them to burrow ; 
and the strangest part of the whole city is that each 
burrow is complete and entirely independent in it- 
self. There are many winding paths and tunnels 
in each house, but each belongs exclusively to its 
owner and never winds into a neighbour's house. 
In case of danger the fox has many directions in 
which he may escape. 

The nursery is the most carefully arranged of all 
the rooms. It is rather small and is directly con- 



MINERS AND EXCAVATORS 69 

nected with the main outer chamber somewhat like 
the nursery of the mole. So skilfully is it situ- 
ated that it sometimes happens a hunter will dig 
into a fox's burrow and never discover the nest of 
young, and later the clever mother will return to 
carry away her babes, which are usually five to six 
in number. Adjoining the nursery are two or 
three storage rooms filled with food for the win- 
ter. The number of bones usually found in the 
basement indicates that a great variety of ducks, 
fish, hares, lemming, and stoats are regularly eaten, 
and that the average fox family does not want for 
food. 

The arctic fox is not only a beauty in his coat of 
pure white, but is unusually brainy. Persecuted 
animals, like persecuted human beings, become 
very wise. Nature is kind to the fox in his arctic 
home, and in the winter turns his coat snow white 
so that he may easily escape his enemies — espe- 
cially men, who seek his beautiful fur and edible 
body. He is skilled in his distrust of wires, sticks, 
guns and strings! No man knows better than he 
the meaning of foot-tracks in the snow, and how 
long they have been there, and which way they 
lead ; thus, those that survive their enemies have ac- 
quired extreme wisdom, and keep carefully away 



70 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

from everything that is at all suspicious to their 
eyes and nostrils. 

The Siberian fox is one of those wise creatures 
that has defied in a most extraordinary way his 
handicaps, and, refusing to admit them, has boldly 
selected the strangest dwelling-place known to the 
animal world — the horn of the mountain sheep. 
This unique dwelling-place has been the home of 
the Siberian fox for ages, and his ancestors have 
known no other. The mountain sheep, which are 
giants among their kind, have the longest horns 
in proportion to their size of any animal in exist- 
ence. The argali of Siberia is the largest of all 
sheep, and is equal in bulk and weight to an aver- 
age-sized ox, with horns proportionally large. 
The horns of these animals are strikingly like those 
of the Rocky Mountain sheep of America, except 
they are much larger. They spring up from the 
forehead, tilt backward, then boldly curve below 
the muzzle, before finally again pointing upward 
and tapering into a sharp and delicate point. They 
are hollow, though exceedingly stout and elastic, 
and strengthened on the outside by a number of 
ridges or horny rings set very close together. They 
are found in large numbers in this land of perpet- 
ual ice and snow, and it is thought that they break 
from the sheep's heads very easily. 



MINERS AND EXCAVATORS 71 

It is not uncommon to find them lying in a spot 
which has been a battlefield, where two sheep in 
attempting to settle some dispute have fought and 
fallen. It is not long after they have thus fallen 
before they are utilised by Mr. Fox. He stores 
himself carefully away in these roomy horns, one 
of which Mrs. Fox uses as a nursery, finding it a 
snug, safe, and warm place to rear her little fam- 

iiy. 

The other varieties of foxes, especially the grey 
and red, are not so skilled in home-making. This 
may be due to the fact that they do not have need 
of such elaborate houses as their arctic cousins. 
Again, it may be that the existence of numerous 
deserted homes of badgers, or even rabbits, makes 
it unnecessary for them to spend their time in build- 
ing homes of their own. It is much easier to en- 
large the ready-made burrow of a rabbit than to 
dig a new tunnel, of course. 

If there is no ready-made burrow to be had, then 
the wise fox sets to work and scoops out his own. 
Herein he sleeps all the day, and comes forth only 
at night. A small chamber from the main room 
serves as the nursery, and here the babies are born 
and nurtured. Nothing is more beautiful than to 
see the entire family — mother, father, and children 
— come forth at evening to play. The young are 



72 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

as sportive as pups, but they never wander far from 
home. Their broad heads, grey coats, short tails 
and awkward appearance would lead no one to 
think that they were the children of handsome, nim- 
ble-limbed, intelligent Mrs. Fox! 

Woe to the dog that enters Mrs. Fox's homel 
She is a pugilist of the first order, and knows how 
to fight far better than the average bull terrier. 
It requires a very savage dog to kill her, and he 
is apt to be minus an ear when the battle is over. 

Red and grey foxes are similar in intelligence, 
but differ in many other ways : the former are like 
the gipsies in always moving about from place to 
place, while the latter stick to one general locality, 
although their hunting-grounds may range for sev- 
eral miles in all directions. Red foxes seem actu- 
ally to enjoy being hunted by dogs; in most cases 
they will outrun the dogs, and rarely seek protec- 
tion from caves or rocks. 

The grey fox, on the other hand, cares little for 
racing, but seeks protection among rocky cliffs 
where the dogs are at a disadvantage. Here none 
but the smallest canines may enter the holes and 
crannies, and they are usually wise enough to stay 
out. Hunters are thoroughly familiar with the 
tactics of the fox family, and therefore select the 
red ones for their sport. 



MINERS AND EXCAVATORS 73 

The foxes are truly famed for their cunning, and 
when other animals try to play tricks on them, the 
trick usually turns out in the foxes' favour. Dur- 
ing the winter season these wise creatures are some- 
times hard pressed for food. Birds and small ani- 
mals are hard to catch, and the farmers' chicken 
houses are closed. It is then that the wise fox 
needs all his wit and wisdom, for he oftentimes be- 
comes the hunted as well as the hunter. His chief 
enemies are the puma and the timber wolf, but they 
are seldom able to get him. 

The prairie-dog is so talented that he might be 
classed under several headings; he is sociable, a 
burrower, and especially gifted in the art of 
constructing underground "dog towns." He is 
rarely called by his Indian name, Wish-ton-wish, 
and we know him only as the prairie-dog. Evi- 
dently he was given this name because of his yelp- 
ing bark, which resembles the cry of a young do- 
mestic dog. 

He is a good-looking but rather curious little 
animal. He has a round, flat head, and garish- 
red fur, and a stout little body. He makes an af- 
fectionate pet, and loves the society of human be- 
ings. When he decides to start a town, he usu- 
ally succeeds, for he is an exceedingly prolific ani- 
mal, and his extensive burrows seem to have no 



74 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

ends. They are rather large, and run to great 
depths. In the western part of the United States, 
especially on the big prairies, the prairie-dog towns 
often cover large areas. They are usually dug in 
a sloping direction, and descend four to six feet 
in depth, and then suddenly rise upward again. 
Hundreds of these little tunnels are dug in such 
close proximity to each other that it is quite unsafe 
for cattle and horses to pass over them. This is 
the chief reason why ranchmen do not like the 
otherwise harmless little animals of the prairies. 
These dog towns are most curious, and a visit 
to one of them well repays the traveller. Strangely 
enough, the prairie-dog is exceedingly inquisitive 
and this very quality often costs the little animal 
his life. Mr. Wood, in describing the prairie- 
dog's habits, says that this wise little Westerner, 
when perched on the hillocks which we have al- 
ready described, is able to survey a wide extent of 
territory and as soon as he sees a visitor, he gives 
a loud yelp of alarm, and dives into his burrow, 
his tiny feet knocking together with a ludicrous 
flourish as he disappears. In every direction sim- 
ilar scenes are enacted. The warning cry has been 
heard, and immediately every dog within a hun- 
dred yards repeats the cry and leaps into his bur- 
row. Their curiosity, however, cannot be sup- 



MINERS AND EXCAVATORS 75 

pressed, and no sooner have they vanished from 
sight than their heads are seen protruding from 
their burrows. Sometimes hundreds of them will 
be peeping from their homes at one time, their 
beautiful eyes sparkling as they cautiously watch 
the enemy's every movement. 

The prairie-dog is truly a tenement dweller, and 
his home is occupied not only by his own kind, but 
by owls and rattlesnakes. Most naturalists be- 
lieve that these incongruous families live in perfect 
harmony ; but it is a well-known fact that the snake 
occasionally devours the young prairie-dogs, and 
he must be considered by them as an intruder who 
procured board and lodging without their con- 
sent. The owls, on the other hand, are supposed 
to do no harm, although it may be that they also 
occasionally feast on a tender young pup. 

The magnificent little animals known to scien- 
tists as vizcachas, and whose homes are on the 
pampas of South America, are the most skilled 
builders of underground cities in the animal world. 
Their villages or cities are called "vizcacheras" and 
are provided with from ten to twenty mouths or 
subway entrances, with one entrance often serv- 
ing for several holes. If the ground is soft, it is 
not uncommon to find twenty to thirty burrows in 
a vizcachera ; but if the ground is rocky and hard, 



76 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

only four or five burrows are found. These wide- 
mouthed, gaping burrows are dug close together, 
and the entire town usually covers from one hun- 
dred to two hundred square feet. 

The vizcacheras are different from other under- 
ground animal cities; some of the burrows are 
large, others are small. Most of them open into a 
subterranean main-street at from four to six feet 
from the entrance; from this street other streets 
wind and turn in all directions, like a man-made 
subway, and many of them extend clear into other 
streets or subways, thus forming a complete net- 
work of underground passageways. All the tun- 
nelled-out dirt is brought to the surface and forms 
a large mound to prevent the water from entering 
the cities. 

According to W. H. Hudson, in The Natural- 
ist in La Plata, "in some directions a person might 
ride five hundred miles and never advance half a 
mile without seeing one or more of them. In dis- 
tricts where, as far as the eye can see, the plains 
are as level and smooth as a bowling-green, espe- 
cially in winter when the grass is close-cropped, and 
where the rough giant-thistle has not sprung up, 
these mounds appear like brown or dark spots on 
a green surface. They are the only irregularities 
that occur to catch the eye, and consequently form 



MINERS AND EXCAVATORS 77 

an important feature in the scenery. In some 
places they are so near together that a person on 
horseback may count a hundred of them from one 
point of view." 

Unlike some burrowing animals, the vizcacha 
does not select a spot where there is a bank or de- 
pression in the soil, or roots of trees, or even tall 
grass; knowing that they only attract the opossum, 
skunk, armadillo, and weasel, he chooses an open 
level plot of ground where he can watch in all di- 
rections for enemies while he works. 

The great or main entrance to some of these un- 
derground cities is sometimes four to six feet in 
diameter. A small man stands shoulder deep in 
them. The going and coming of these little 
vizcachas would almost lead one to believe that they 
have a primitive city government, and are ruled 
according to definite laws. Their cities stand for 
generations, and many of the old human inhabi- 
tants tell of certain vizcacheras around them which 
existed when their parents were living. The 
founder of a new village is usually a male ; and he 
goes only a short distance from the other villages 
to establish his new colony. 

These cities are by no means occupied by their 
builders alone, but have their undesirables within 
their borders. The unique style of burrowing 



78 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

which the vizcachas employ benefits several kinds 
of birds, especially the Minerva, and one species 
of the swallows, which build their nests in the bank- 
like holes in the sides of the vizcacha's cities. Sev- 
eral insects, among which may be mentioned a large 
nocturnal bug, with red wings and shiny black 
body, also seek the same shelter; another foreign 
inhabitant is a night-roaming cincindela, with dark 
green wing-cases and pale red legs, which remind 
one of oriental jewels. There are also no less than 
six species of wingless wasps, beautifully coloured 
in red, black, and white. Dozens of spiders and 
smaller insects that live in and near the vizcacheras, 
which are everywhere sprinkled over the pampas, 
pass in and out among the streets recognising their 
respective friends and enemies. 

The home life in these communities is most in- 
teresting. The burrowers remain indoors until 
late in the evening during the winter, but in sum- 
mer appear before the sun sets. One of the larger 
males is the first to appear, as if to see if every- 
thing is safe from danger; if it is, others immedi- 
ately pop up and take their places at the entrance 
to the burrow. The females are smaller than the 
males, and stand up that they may see everything 
that happens. Curiosity struggling within them 
for mastery is often the cause of their death. Tiny 



MINERS AND EXCAVATORS 79 

swallows hover over the entrances, like myriads of 
large moths, with never-ending low, mournful 
cries. 

Of all the incongruous inhabitants of the vizca- 
cheras, the fox is the most dreaded and the least 
welcome. To appease his growls and snarls the 
vizcachas are sometimes forced to let him occupy 
one of their rooms for a season, or even perma- 
nently. During a part of the year he appears 
quite unassuming and indifferent to the general af- 
fairs of the household, and he really goes quite un- 
noticed, even though he may be sitting on the 
mound in the family group. Rut when the vizca- 
chas appear in the spring, the fox begins to become 
interested in the nursery and as soon as the older 
animals are away he devours the young. Occa- 
sionally, if the fox is hungry, or if he has another 
friend to aid him, he will hunt the vizcachera from 
end to end, battling with the old, and usually kill- 
ing all the young. It often happens that the 
mother vizcacha, when her babes are large enough 
to follow her, will take them away to another place 
that is safer. 

The language of these city-builders is most un- 
usual; the males frequently utter the most varied 
and astonishing cries. They are jarring in the ex- 
treme, and are produced in the most leisurely man- 



80 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

ner, growing louder and louder and finally ending 
with a slow quaver. At other times, they grunt 
like small pigs. Hudson says that any quick noise, 
like the report of a gun, produces a most startling 
effect among these little animals. As soon as the 
report is broken on the stillness of the night a per- 
fect furore of cries issues forth from every direc- 
tion. In a few seconds it ceases for a momentary 
lull, and then suddenly breaks forth again, louder 
than before. The tones of the different ones are 
so different that the cries of nearby individuals may 
be plainly distinguished amidst the babel of voices 
coming from the distance. It sounds as if thou- 
sands upon thousands of them were striving to ex- 
press every emotion with their tiny tenor voices. 
No words can describe the effect that these sounds 
produce. One of the most peculiar calls is the spe- 
cial alarm-note, which is sharp, sudden, and shrill. 
It is reported from one to another until every viz- 
cacha is safe in his burrow. 

But with all the kind and sociable qualities of 
these little animals, they have characteristics which 
seem rather paradoxical, and chief among these is 
their resentment of any intrusion of neighbours into 
their burrows. Although a number of individuals 
may reside in adjoining compartments in the same 
burrow, yet if one enters a burrow not his own — 



MINERS AND EXCAVATORS 81 

woe is he! Even when pursued by fierce dogs a 
vizcacha will rarely enter a room of another. If 
he does, he is immediately pounced upon by the 
angry owner, and is usually driven clear out of the 
burrow. These animals are undoubtedly far the 
most versatile and intelligent rodents in the world. 

A most unusual miner and underground dweller 
is the pocket gopher of North and Central Amer- 
ica. He is a rat-like animal, and is most plentiful 
on the plains of the Mississippi region. He is un- 
usual in appearance, dressed in brown and grey 
fur, with tiny white feet, small eyes and ears, and 
a short stubby tail. His feet are wonderfully 
strong, and his fore-paws are armed with strong, 
curved claws. But he is famed for his wonderful 
fur-lined pouches which open inside his cheeks and 
serve a peculiar use. 

His entire life, with rare exceptions, is spent un- 
derground. There he makes long tunnels for the 
purpose of securing tender roots for food; these 
tunnels are about twelve to eighteen inches below 
the surface, and usually wind under the foot of a 
tree where a sinking passage goes down four to 
five feet further and leads to a large living-room. 
This is the family nest and nursery, lined with grass 
and soft fur which Mrs. Gopher has taken from her 
own body. Adjoining the living-room is a storage 



82 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

bin filled with nuts, dried bits of roots, tobacco, and 
potatoes. 

Much that is exaggerated has been said in re- 
gard to the adaptability of the gopher for his work. 
But it is a fact that he is of all the diggers best 
suited for his task. He uses his strong teeth, like a 
trench-digger uses a pick, to loosen the earth; and 
while his forefeet are kept constantly at work in 
digging and pressing the dirt back under the body, 
the hind feet also aid in shovelling it still farther 
back. When a sufficient amount has heaped up 
behind him, he performs the strangest of all his 
feats — he turns around, and places his hands ver- 
tically against his chin, thus forcing himself back- 
wards, pushing the dirt ahead of himself until it 
is forced out of the tunnel. At the outer end of 
the tunnel is formed a little hillock. 

Dr. Merriam has made a special study of the 
gopher, and in speaking of the strange habit of 
running backwards, he says that even in carrying 
food to one of his barns or storehouses the gopher 
rarely turns round but usually runs backwards 
and forwards, over and over again like a shuttle 
on its track. 

The gopher uses his pouches for carrying food, 
not dirt. When he has eaten a sufficient amount 
of food, he fills his pouches. If a potato is too large 



MINERS AND EXCAVATORS 83 

to be carried in this way, he trims it off to the right 
size. His method of emptying his pouches is most 
interesting; with his two tiny paws he delicately 
presses the food from his cheeks. 

The woodchuck is an American basement-dweller 
of considerable renown. His peculiar whistling 
cry has won for him from the French the name of 
siffleur; and we sometimes call him by the very in- 
appropriate name of ground-hog. He is a skilled 
weather prophet, and his appearance in the early 
spring signifies that the winter is over. He never 
shows himself until the cold is gone. 

The home of the woodchuck is usually found 
under a hill, with a sheltering rock to protect the 
entrance, which leads into a tunnel, from twenty 
to thirty feet in length, finally ending by entering 
his home proper. The tunnel descends obliquely 
for several feet, and again rises towards the sur- 
face. His nest is rather large, and nicely lined 
with dry grass and leaves, which serve as a carpet 
for the young woodchucks when they come into the 
world. The young remain in the underground 
home until they are about five months old, then 
they go out into the world for themselves. 

The ground squirrel long ago decided that he 
would rather have a dwelling under the ground 
than in the tree-tops, for in an underground home 



84 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

he would have more protection, a better place for 
storing food, and a far safer nursery for rearing 
his precious babes. So snug, cosy and hidden are 
the tiny quarters to which his runs or subways lead 
that his family is quite safe against most enemies. 
The ingenuity and skill shown in the construc- 
tion of his home entitles him to rank among the 
leading animal miners and excavators. 

The most unusual of all the underground and 
basement dwellers is the polar bear. This wise in- 
habitant of the Ear North has long ago learned that 
no animal needs to freeze to death in the snow. To 
him the snow is a constant means of warmth and 
protection, and as winter approaches, he seeks a 
position, usually near a big rock, where he digs out 
a hole of small dimensions, and allows the snow to 
cover his body. Strangely enough it is only the 
female bear that seeks this permanent snow hut; 
the males do not care to spend so much time in se- 
clusion. The same is true of the unmated females. 
But the mated females always have snow huts in 
which they give birth to their young, and where 
they reside until early spring ; then the mother bear 
comes forth with them to seek food and teach them 
the ways of the world. 

There is no danger that the bears will stifle for 
air under the snow, because the warmth of their 




Natural History, Mew York, 



TO THE POLAR BEAR THE ICE AND SNOW OF THE FAR NORTH MEAN WARMTH 

AND PROTECTION. THE MOTHER BEAR DIGS HERSELF INTO A SNOWBANK, 

WHERE SHE LIVES QUITE COMFORTABLY THROUGHOUT THE WINTER. 



MINERS AND EXCAVATORS 85 

breath always keeps a small hole open at the top 
of the snow-cell. This snow-house increases as time 
goes on, the heat exhaled from their bodies gradu- 
ally melting the snow. Often Mrs. Bear's home is 
discovered by means of the tiny hole in the roof 
around which is collected quantities of hoar frost. 

Hibernation is one of the strangest phenomena 
of the animal world, and bears, especially the white 
bear of the polar regions, the black bear of North 
America, and the brown bear of Europe, agree in 
the curious habit of semi-hibernation. In the late 
fall of the season, the bears begin to eat heavily and 
soon become enormously fat, preparatory for the 
long winter of semi-sleep. 

During the winter, at least for three months, the 
polar bear takes no food, but lives entirely upon the 
store of fat which her body had accumulated before 
she went into retirement. The same is true of 
many hibernating animals, but in case of the bears 
it is more remarkable because the mother bear must 
not only support herself but nourish her young for 
a long period without taking any food for herself. 

Another good example of a ground-dweller is 
the aard vark of Southern Africa. He is as curious 
as his name, and scoops out immense quantities of 
earth to form his home. This dwelling might be 
termed a cave, as he heaps up the earth in the shape 



86 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

of a mammoth artificial ant-hill; on one side is the 
entrance, which is so skilfully formed that it looks 
far more like the work of man than of an animal. 

His name is Dutch and means earth-hog. It is 
applied to him because his head looks somewhat like 
that of a pig. His claws are powerful and enor- 
mous, and with them he is able to dig into the hard- 
est soil, and to destroy the giant ant-hills which are 
dotted over the plains of South Africa, and which 
can withstand the weight of a dozen men. 

This strange creature sleeps during the day, and 
comes forth at evening to seek his food. The first 
thing he does is to burst a hole in the stony side of 
an ant-hill, to the utter dismay of its tiny inhabi- 
tants. As they run among the ruins of their fallen 
city, he throws out his slimy tongue and catches 
them by the hundreds. In a short time only the 
shell of a half-destroyed wall remains. 

These once stately ant-homes metamorphosed 
into caves, form homes for the jackals and large 
serpents of the plains. The Kaffirs of Africa use 
them as vaults into which are thrown their dead. 
The aard vark outrivals, with his great claws, the 
most skilled burrowing tools of man. These ani- 
mals are therefore rarely captured. It is not un- 
common for a horse to fall into their excavations 
and be killed. 



MINERS AND EXCAVATORS 87 

Miners, excavators, and underground dwellers 
teach us the great lesson that, while many of them 
sought the ground as a protection, and found there 
many difficulties to overcome, they not only have 
won in the great struggle of life but have so skil- 
fully adapted themselves to their environment and 
surroundings as to become entire masters, even ar- 
tists, in their methods of living. 



VI 

ANIMAL MATHEMATICIANS 

"But what a thoughtless animal is man, — 
How very active in his own trepan !" 

— Prior. 

AMONG the special senses of animals none 
seems more human than their knowledge of 
mathematics. A recognition of this quality in ani- 
mals is encouraging because the new scientists are 
earnestly trying to build up a true knowledge of 
animal behaviour by studying them in the light of 
the new psychology. This will fill the place of the 
vast amount of misinformation which those skilled 
only in book-knowledge, without really knowing the 
ways of Nature, have builded. It will also record 
all the strange and curious facts about animals and 
their ways without insisting too much on rigid ex- 
planation. These new scientists are far different 
from their predecessors who tried to explain every- 
thing they did not understand about an animal's 
behaviour in terms of the scanty information 
gained by studying a few museum specimens. We 

88 



ANIMAL MATHEMATICIANS 89 

might as well attempt to explain human nature 
from the study of an Egyptian mummy. The new 
method is simply to give the facts about an animal, 
and frankly admit that in many cases, such as are 
found in their knowledge of counting and num- 
bers, we must leave complete explanation to the 
future when we shall have a greater fund of scien- 
tific data on which to base our conclusions. 

It is an established fact that some animals can 
count, and that they have the faculty of close ob- 
servation and keen discrimination. They learn to 
count quickly, but they do not fully appreciate the 
value of numerical rotation. Most of the arithmeti- 
cal feats of trained animals are hoaxes regulated 
by their sense of smell, sight, touch and taste. But 
no one doubts their ability to count. I have known 
a monkey that could count to five. He played with 
a number of marbles, and I would ask for two mar- 
bles, one marble, four marbles, as the case might 
be, and he would quickly hand the number re- 
quested. 

Another incident that will illustrate the point 
is the case of a mule owned by an old negro near 
Huntsville, Texas. The regular routine work of 
this mule was to cart two loads of wood to the town 
every day. One day the negro wished to make a 
third trip, but was unable to do so. When asked 



90 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

the reason, he replied, "Dat fool mule, Napoleon, 
done decided we had hauled enough wood fo' one 
day!" 

Pratl claims that the time-sense is totally absent 
in animals, and that it belongs only to man, as one 
of the attributes of his mental superiority. How- 
ever, many facts go to show that animals have not 
only a specific time-sense, but also a sense of per- 
sonal identity which reaches back into the past. 

Time-sense is very highly developed in dogs, cats, 
hogs, horses, goats, and sheep. They apparently are 
able to keep an accurate account of the days of the 
week and hours of the day and night, and even seem 
to know something of numerical succession and 
logical sequence. A friend in Texas had an old col- 
oured servant, whose faithful dog had been trained 
to know that just at noon each day he was expected 
to carry lunch to his master. I have seen the dog 
on more than one occasion playing with children in 
the streets, suddenly break away without any one 
calling him, or an}^ suggestion on our part as to the 
time, and rush for the kitchen just at the proper mo- 
ment. No one could detain him from his duty. 
This same dog, however, would on Sundays con- 
tinue to play at the noon hour. Surely, if any ex- 
planation is to be offered in such a case as this, it 
will imply as strict a sense of time as it does of duty. 



ANIMAL MATHEMATICIANS 91 

A friend relates a case of a dog that went each 
evening to meet a train on which his master re- 
turned from the city. On one occasion the train 
was delayed two hours, and it was exceedingly cold, 
but the devoted companion remained until his mas- 
ter arrived. Innumerable instances of such all- 
absorbing affection, showing at the same time a 
sense of time, might be cited. 

Dr. Brown gives a most remarkable example of 
a dog's ability to distinguish time. The story is of 
a female dog, though named Wylie, which was pur- 
chased by Dr. Brown when he was a young man, 
from an old shepherd who had long been in his 
employment. Wylie was brought to his father's, 
"and was at once taken," he says, "to all our hearts; 
and though she was often pensive, as if thinking of 
her master and her work on the hills, she made her- 
self at home, and behaved in all respects like a lady. 
. . • Some months after we got her, there was a 
mystery about her ; every Tuesday evening she dis- 
appeared; we tried to watch her, but in vain; she 
was always off by nine P. M., and was away all 
night, coming back next day wearied, and all over 
mud, as if she had travelled far. This went on for 
some months, and we could make nothing of it. 
Well, one day I was walking across the Grass- 
market, with Wylie at my heels, when two shep- 



92 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

herds started, and looking at her, one said, 'That's 
her; that's the wonderful wise bitch that naebody 
kens.' I asked him what he meant, and he told 
me that for months past she had made her appear- 
ance by the first daylight at the 'buchts' or sheep- 
pens in the cattle-market, and worked incessantly, 
and to excellent purpose, in helping the shepherds 
to get their sheep and lambs in. The man said in 
a sort of transport, 'She's a perfect meeraele; flees 
about like a speerit, and never gangs wrang ; wears, 
but never grups, and beats a' oor dowgs. She's a 
perfect meeraele, and as soople as a mawkin'.' She 
continued this work until she died." 

Another most striking instance, showing animals' 
sense of time, is that related by Watson in which he 
tells of two friends, fathers of families, one living 
in London and the other at Guilford. For many 
years it was the custom of the London family to 
visit their friends in Guilford, always accompanied 
by their spaniel, Csesar. After some years a mis- 
understanding arose between the two families. The 
usual Christmas visits were discontinued ; not, how- 
ever, so far as the spaniel was concerned. His visits 
continued as before. On the eve of the first Christ- 
mas following the misunderstanding, the Guilford 
family were astonished to find at their door their 
London friend, Caesar. Naturally, they expected 



ANIMAL MATHEMATICIANS 93 

that he had come in advance of the family, and were 
happy in the thought of this unexpected reconcilia- 
tion. All evening they awaited their friends, but 
none arrived. Nor did they the next day. Caesar 
had come of his own accord at the accustomed time, 
and remained with his friends for the usual number 
of days. This naturally led to a correspondence 
between the families, who thereupon resumed their 
former friendly relations. We do not believe, of 
course, that this dog counted the exact number of 
days to know when to start to Guilford, but he 
doubtless saw something to remind him of the past. 

Sir John Lubbock once related before the Brit- 
ish Association at Aberdeen how cards bearing the 
ten numerals were arranged before a dog, and the 
dog given a problem, such as to state the square root 
of nine, or of sixteen, or the sum of two numbers. 
He would then point at each card in succession, and 
the dog would bark when he came to the right one. 
The dog never made a mistake. If this was not evi- 
dence of a mentality at least approaching that of 
men, we do not know what to call it. 

If there is any difference between an animal and 
a human mathematician, it depends upon special 
training. The animal never has the same oppor- 
tunities to learn as the man. Many savages, for 
example, cannot count beyond three or four. Sir 



94 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

John Lubbock gives an anecdote of Mr. Galton, 
who compared the arithmetical knowledge of cer-> 
tain savages of South Africa and a dog. The com- 
parison proved to the advantage of the dog. 

There is no reason that a dog should not be 
taught arithmetic. And if one wishes to do so, it 
might be well to begin by making the dog distin- 
guish one from two, allowing him to touch both once 
at the word one, and twice at the word two. Then 
he might pass on to six or seven. After he had 
progressed to ten, he might begin addition. At 
least the experiment would be interesting and con- 
ducive to learning the truth. Surely a knowledge 
of mathematics is no more wonderful than that of 
the ordinary pointer dog's ability to distinguish dif- 
ferent kinds of birds. Certain of those wise dogs 
are trained to hunt only quail, while others hunt 
several varieties of game. 

It should be remembered that all degrees of 
arithmetical aptitude are found in the human races, 
from the genius of a Newton and a Laplace to the 
absolute inability of certain of the Hottentots to 
count to three. These inequalities in the mathe- 
matical notions of different people should make us 
very cautious about saying that animals cannot 
count and have no sense of numbers. It is ex- 
tremely probable that if we had a way of choosing 




THE COYOTE CAN READILY DISTINGUISH WHETHER A HERD OF SHEEP IS 
GUARDED BY ONE OR MORE DOGS, AND WILL PLAN HIS ATTACK ACCORDINGLY. 




- 

XII JH 



ANIMAL MATHEMATICIANS 95 

those animals with a special gift for arithmetic, they 
would surprise us with their learning. 

No one denies that animals are capable of dis- 
tinguishing relative sizes and even quantities. They 
are not so skilled as the average human being in 
making these distinctions, yet when mentally com- 
pared to the state of Bushmen, Tasmanians, and 
Veddahs, who can count only two, and call it many, 
there is not such a vast gulf between them and man- 
kind. 

The zebu, or sacred bull of India, shows his 
mathematical qualities to a pronounced degree. 
When he grows attached to a small group of his 
kin, he will often refuse to leave them unless the 
entire group accompany him. When driven from 
his pen, if by chance one of his party is left behind 
he refuses to go — thus indicating that he is able to 
tell that the exact number is not with him. His af- 
fectionate and gentle disposition, not to mention 
his love of his offspring, would entitle him to rank 
among the most human of animals. No wonder he 
is worshipped in India, where the human side of ■ 
animal life is understood and appreciated to a de- 
gree quite unknown to the Western world ! 

The fox and the wolf, and even the coyote, can 
readily distinguish whether a herd of sheep or cattle 
is guarded by three or four dogs, and whether there 



96 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

is one herdsman or two. They cannot tell the exact 
number of sheep, however; neither could a man 
without first counting them. Their knowledge of 
geometry is remarkable. They can orient them- 
selves to the surrounding woods, measure distances, 
figure out the safest way of escape, and the power 
of the enemy even better than savage man. Yet in 
most of these problems, definite notions of number 
or figures have little part. A dog, when hunting, 
for example, on a prairie where he has to leap over 
ditches or quickly turn around a large tree, is able 
by a second's thought to do so without danger. He 
clears the wire fence, leaps the ditch, dashes through 
a closing gate, or escapes an infuriated enemy at a 
moment's notice. This natural wisdom is exer- 
cised spontaneously in him, it is the result of inborn 
theorems of which he may not even be aware, but 
which he uses with a sureness that defies the book- 
learning of all our teachers of mathematics. He 
uses speed, force, space, mass, and time with so 
small an effort, and by the quickest and shortest 
routes. 

Suppose a wolf or a wild hog could not tell how 
many dogs were attacking it? There would be no 
way for it to defend itself. If four dogs attack it, 
they are counted and the tactics used that would be 
useless in other cases. If four dogs attack, two on 



ANIMAL MATHEMATICIANS 97 

each side, it retreats, with face toward the enemy. 
If a dozen dogs are in the attacking force, the hog 
becomes confused, loses all idea of number, and 
wildly bites at any enemy that comes nearest. Man 
in a similar condition would use practically the same 
tactics. 

Cats undeniably count their kittens. If the 
mother loses one of three or four, she searches for 
it immediately. When dogs are chasing a hare, if 
they raise another, they become veiy confused, as 
if they did not know which to follow. Many 
shepherd dogs know if a sheep is missing from the 
flock and go to hunt it. 

The efforts of scientific investigators, who work 
with so many learned theories, have been less suc- 
cessful in discovering the real facts about animals 
than of laymen, largely because the scientists have 
not yet learned that arithmetical notions are more 
difficult than geometrical ones. Our industrial 
civilisation has caused us to lose the idea of the in- 
significance that number has in animal life com- 
pared to the idea of size. Most animals have a re- 
markable sense of size; they measure time and dis- 
tance better than civilised man. A hyena, for ex- 
ample, knows just how near he dare approach an 
unarmed man. 

A sense of time is common among animals that 



98 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

daily eat at fixed hours. A donkey was accustomed 
to being fed at six o'clock in the morning, and when 
on one occasion his master did not appear on time, 
he deliberately kicked in the door to the barn and 
proceeded to feed himself. 

Animals are capable of measuring lapses of 
time in which they are particularly interested. 
Houzeau claims that a female crocodile remains 
away from her eggs in the sand for twelve to twenty 
days, according to the species, but returns to the 
place exactly on the day they hatch. 

Although we should hesitate to affirm that all 
animals have an extensive knowledge of figures and 
numbers, yet it can hardly be denied that the ele- 
phant, donkey, horse, dog, and cat, if given the 
proper training, become good mathematicians. It 
is undeniable that they have a love of mental 
acquisition, and it seems that the Creator has given 
to every animal, as a reward for its limitations in 
other respects, a definite innate knowledge and de- 
sire to advance educationally. There is in the 
breast of every animal an irresistible impulse which 
urges it to advance in the scale of knowledge. 
Where the animal is blessed with other mental 
powers, there is found a perfect harmony — of tact, 
intuition, insight, and genius — all that man himself 
possesses. 



VII 

THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS 

"Who ever knew an honest brute 

At law his neighbours prosecute, 

Bring action for assault and battery 

Or friends beguile with lies and flattery?" 

THE fact that all animals possess ideas, no mat- 
ter how small those ideas may be, implies 
reason. That these ideas are transmitted from one 
animal to another, no one can doubt in the light of 
our present scientific knowledge. "Be not startled," 
says the distinguished animal authority, Dr. Wil- 
liam T. Hornaday, "by the discovery that apes and 
monkeys have language; for their vocabulary is 
not half so varied and extensive as that of the barn- 
yard fowls, whose language some of us know very 
well." The means by which ideas are transmitted 
from one animal to another can be rightly described 
by no other term than language. 

It is evident that there are many kinds of lan- 
guage : the written ; the spoken ; the universal, which 
implies the motion, sign, and form language; the 

99 



100 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

language of the eye, by which ideas are exchanged 
without words or gestures; and lastly, a mode of 
expression little known to the human world, but 
universal among animals. This language is spoken 
by no man, but is understood by every brute from 
the tiniest hare to the largest elephant ; it is the lan- 
guage whereby spirit communicates with spirit, and 
by which it recognises in a moment what it would 
take an entire volume to narrate. In its nature it 
differs essentially from all other languages, yet we 
are justified in thinking of it as a language because 
its function is to transmit ideas from one animal to 
another. Every form of language is used by ani- 
mals, and each has its own peculiar language or 
"dialect" common to its tribe only, though occa- 
sionally learned by others. All the emotions — fear, 
caution, joy, grief, gratitude, hope, despair — are 
disclosed by some form of language. 

It would be interesting to know how the use of 
the word "dumb" ever became applied to animals, 
for in reality there are very few dumb animals. 
Doubtless the word was originally employed to ex- 
press a larger idea than that of dumbness, and im- 
plied the lack of power in animals to communicate 
successfully with man by sound or language. The 
real trouble lies with man, who is unable to under- 



THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS 101 

stand the language spoken or uttered by the ani- 
mals. 

The gesture language is commonly used by many 
of the tribes of Southern Africa, and some of the 
Bushmen are unable to converse freely after dark, 
because their visible gestures are needed as an aid 
to their spoken words. Only a few years ago there 
were almost as many different languages among 
the North American Indians as there were differ- 
ent tribes, and yet each tribe had a sign-language 
which any Indian in any part of the world might 
understand. In fact it was so simple that it might 
be practically mastered in a few hours, and through 
it one might converse with the Indians of the world 
without knowing a single word of their spoken lan- 
guage. And this is exactly what the animals do 
with their universal language. 

Who does not understand the meaning of a dog 
when he approaches his master, after receiving a 
reprimand for some misdemeanor, with downcast 
head and lowered tail? Or who could fail to inter- 
pret the glee when he has done a noble deed and 
been praised by his master? His is the language 
of gesture and look, and is very similar to that in 
use by our deaf-and-dumb men throughout the 
world. 

The Hindoos invariably talk to their elephants, 



102 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

and it is astonishing how they understand. Bay- 
ard Taylor says that "the Arabs govern their camels 
with a few cries, and my associates in the African 
deserts were always amused whenever I addressed 
a remark to the dromedary who was my property 
for two months ; yet at the end of that time the beast 
evidently knew the meaning of a number of simple 
sentences. Some years ago, seeing the hippopota- 
mus in Barnum's museum looking very stolid and 
dejected, I spoke to him in English, but he did not 
even open his eyes. Then I went to the opposite 
corner of the cage, and said in Arabic, 'I know you ; 
come here to me.' I repeated the words, and there* 
upon he came to the corner where I was standing, 
pressed his huge, ungainly head against the bars 
of the cage, and looked in my face with a touch of 
delight while I stroked his muzzle. I have two or 
three times found a lion who recognised the same 
language, and the expression of his eyes, for an in- 
stant, seemed positively human." 

Every one familiar with the habits of dogs be- 
lieves that they have a language. Certain shep- 
herds are quite particular about the company their 
dogs keep. This story is told of a couple of shep- 
herds meeting in a market-place in Scotland, each 
accompanied by his dog, one of which was a sheep- 
murderer, the other a faithful and respectable dog. 



THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS 103 

They seemed to strike up a great friendship, "and 
soon assumed so remarkable a demeanour in their 
conversation that their owners consulted together 
on their own account, and agreed to set a watch 
upon them. On that very evening both dogs started 
from their homes at the same hour, joined each 
other, and set off after the sheep." It is unques- 
tionable that these dogs had a sufficiency of lan- 
guage to understand each other. The criminal had 
invited his innocent young friend to join him in his 
mischief, and they agreed upon the time to meet 
and each kept his appointment. It is likely that 
there was not an audible sound uttered during their 
conversation, but that they used the language of 
look and gesture, and while it was not understood 
by their masters, it was entirely comprehended by 
themselves. 

Another instance of canine language is given by 
John Burroughs, who says that a certain tone in his 
dog's bark implies that he has found a snake. 

There is an old maxim which says : "The empty 
wagon makes the most noise," and it is interesting 
to note that the loudest-mouthed and most loqua- 
cious of all the animals are the lemurs, who are the 
least intelligent members of their great family. 
They chatter, scream, squeak, and grunt from 
morning till night, and two of them can make more 



104 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

noise than a cageful of apes and monkeys. The 
orangs and chimpanzees, on the other hand, excep- 
tionally wise and gifted linguists, seldom utter a 
word or cry, except under extraordinary circum- 
stances, and then briefly. 

Prof. Richard L. Garner, who has spent much 
time in studying the language of animals, has at- 
tracted a great amount of attention through his 
special study of the anthropoid apes. He has lived 
among these animals in a steel cage in their native 
haunts and has used a phonograph to record their 
language. Prof. Garner told recently of an ex- 
ceptionally intelligent ape, named Susie, whose 
home used to be at the Zoological Park, under the 
care of the Zoological Society, and he claimed that 
Susie could speak "in her own language" at least 
five words. They were "yes," "no," "protest," 
"satisfaction" and "contempt." 

Mr. George Gladden, writing in the Outlook on 
the chimpanzee's voice, did not exactly commit him- 
self as to his belief regarding this matter, but he 
says: "Now, although Mr. Engeholm (for four 
years in charge of the Primates House in the New 
York Zoological Park) has not been able to dis- 
cover that his apes use any language, correctly 
speaking, he is confident that the chimpanzees 
Susie, Dick, and Baldy comprehend the definite 



THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS 105 

meaning of many words, and that their minds react 
promptly when these words are addressed to them 
in the form of commands. This capacity is more 
highly developed in Susie than in any other of the 
apes in this particular group. . . . 

"It is difficult, of course, to determine from the 
commands which an animal will obey precisely how 
many words employed in these commands are plain- 
ly understood; but I have endeavoured to do this 
tentatively in the case of Mr. Engeholm's com- 
mands to Susie, all of which I have seen her obey 
repeatedly and promptly." 

Mr. Gladden enumerates about forty-three com- 
mands which he claims to have seen Susie obey 
promptly. And he further states that the belief 
which many students of animal psychology hold 
that an animal gets more of the meaning of a com- 
mand from the gesture which accompanies the com- 
mand than he does from the actual words by which 
he is commanded, is false, and he adds, "as to this, 
I can testify that of the forty-three commands . . . 
thirty-six may be, and generally are, unaccom- 
panied by any gesture whatever. How, then, does 
Susie comprehend those commands unless through 
her understanding of the meaning of the words in 
which they are conveyed?" 

The distinguished phrenologist Gall had a dog 



106 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

whose memory was remarkable, and he thoroughly- 
understood words and phrases. "On this subject 
I have made," says Gall, "the following observa- 
tions: I have often spoken intentionally of things 
which might interest my dog, avoiding the men- 
tion of his name, and not letting any gesture escape 
me which would be likely to arouse his attention. 
He always exhibited pleasure or pain suitable to 
the occasion, and by his conduct afterwards showed 
that he understood perfectly well." 

Col. W. Campbell in his Indian Journal gives 
two remarkable instances of language and unity of 
work among animals which he saw at Ranee Ben- 
nore, while he was on a hunting trip. He witnessed, 
one morning, a striking case of wolfish generalship, 
which in his belief proved that animals are endowed 
to a certain extent not only with reason but are able 
to communicate their ideas to others. He was scan- 
ning the horizon one morning to see if any game 
was in sight when he discovered a small herd of 
antelopes feeding in a nearby field. In another 
remote corner of the field, hidden from the ante- 
lopes, he saw six wolves sitting with their heads 
close together as though they were in deep conver- 
sation. 

He knew at once that they were also seeking 
venison for breakfast and he determined to watch 



THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS 107 

them. He concealed himself behind a clump of 
bushes, and the wolves who had evidently already 
decided upon their mode of attack began their 
manoeuvres: one remained stationary, while the 
other five crept to the edge of the field and one by 
one took the most advantageous positions, the fifth 
concealing himself in a deep furrow in the centre 
of the field. 

The sixth, which had made no previous move- 
ments, dashed at the antelopes. The swift, graceful 
creatures, trusting in their incomparable speed, 
tossed their heads as if in disdain of so small an 
enemy and galloped away as though they were rid- 
ing on the winds with their enemy far behind. But 
as soon as they reached the edge of the field, one of 
the hiding wolves sprang up and chased them in 
an opposite direction, while his fatigued accomplice 
lay down to recuperate. Again the light-heeled 
herd darted across the field, evidently hoping to 
escape on the opposite side, but here again they 
met another crafty wolf who chased them directly 
toward another of the pack. The chase had begun 
in earnest, the persecuted antelopes were driven 
from place to place, a fresh enemy springing up 
at every turn, till at last they became so terrorised 
with fear that they crowded together in the center 



108 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

of the field and began running around in diminish- 
ing circles. 

During all this performance, the wolf which was 
hidden in a furrow in the centre of the field had not 
moved, although the antelopes had passed around 
and over him dozens of times. He well realised his 
time for action had not yet come and crouched 
closer and closer awaiting a signal from his fellow 
hunters to spring into their midst, and down one of 
the weakened antelopes. 

At this point Col. Campbell shot one of the 
wolves, and the other five ran away and allowed the 
antelopes to escape. Surely no human combination 
could have shown greater reason and concerted ac- 
tion than was shown by the wolves under such con- 
ditions. Each had a particular post assigned, and 
evidently some means of communication was used 
in indicating their respective locations. Each had 
a definite part to play in the complex scheme — so 
that their language quite evidently expressed ab- 
stract ideas. That these ideas were carried out 
shows that the wolves were capable not only of 
laying ambitious plans for capturing prey, but of 
carrying them out as well. 

"That beasts possess a language, which enables 
them to communicate their ideas," says Thomas 
Gentry, "has been clearly shown. It is just as ap- 



THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS' 109 

parent that they can act upon the ideas so con- 
veyed. We have now to see whether they can con- 
vey their ideas to man, and so bridge over the gulf 
between the higher and the lower beings. Were 
there no means of communicating ideas between 
man and animals, domestication would be impossi- 
ble. Every one who has possessed and cared for 
some favourite animal must have observed that they 
can do so. Their own language becomes, in many 
instances, intelligible to man. Just as a child that 
is unable to pronounce words, can express its mean- 
ing by intimation, so a dog can do the same by its 
different modes of barking. There is the bark of 
joy or welcome, when the animal sees its master, 
or anticipates a walk with him; the furious bark of 
anger, if the dog suspects that any one is likely to 
injure himself or master, and the bark of terror 
when the dog is suddenly frightened at something 
which he cannot understand. Supposing, now, that 
his master could not see the dog, but could only 
hear his bark, would he not know perfectly well the 
ideas which were passing through the animal's 
mind?" 

There is no doubt that animals understand some- 
thing of our human language. They may not be 
able to comprehend the exact words used, but it is 
evident they get the meaning to a certain extent. 



110 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

I once had a small Mexican dog sent me from Mex- 
ico ; he seemed not to understand what was said to 
him, until a friend called who spoke to him in Span- 
ish, whereupon he showed his delight and became at 
once a friend to the man who spoke his own lan- 
guage. 

The Rev. J. G. Wood tells the following inci- 
dent, which forcibly illustrates the ability possessed 
by animals to commune with each other. "While 
I was living in the country with a friend, a most 
interesting incident was observed in the history of 
the dog. My friend had several dogs, of which two 
had a special attachment to, and an understanding 
with, each other. The one was a Scotch terrier, 
gentle and ready to fraternise with all honest 
comers. The other was as large as a mastiff, and 
looked like a compound between the mastiff and 
the large rough stag-hound. He was fierce, and 
required some acquaintance before you knew what 
faithfulness and kindness lay beneath his rough and 
savage-looking exterior. The one was gay and 
lively, the other, stern and thoughtful. 

"These two dogs were often observed to go to a 
certain point together, when the small one remained 
behind at a corner of a large field, while the mastiff 
took a round by the side of the field, which ran up- 
hill for nearly a mile, and led to a wood on the left. 



THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS 111 

Game abounded in those districts and the object of 
the dogs' arrangement was soon seen. The terrier 
would start a hare, and chase it up the hill towards 
the large wood at the summit, where they arrived 
somewhat tired. At this point, the large dog, who 
was fresh and had rested after his walk, darted after 
the animal, which he usually captured. They then 
ate the hare between them and returned home. 
This course had been systematically carried on some 
time before it was fully understood." 

Every animal has a definite language which is 
quite sufficient to express the desires and emotions 
of its nature, and to make them intelligible, not only 
to its own species, but also to other animals and 
sometimes to human beings. Those which do not 
actually speak by means of a voice, make signs or 
mimic understood things so as to be perfectly in- 
telligible. If animals had no language, they could 
not instruct their young. The young of animals 
in a civilised country are far wiser than the old ones 
in wild, uninhabited countries. This can be ex- 
plained only by the knowledge which the young re- 
ceive from their parents. 

It is not uncommon for animals belonging to 
widely different species to speak the same language, 
and thus become great friends. A friend in Texas 
once owned a cow whose sole companion was a small 



112 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

black goat. One day the young goat followed the 
cow home from her grazing place, and from that 
time on they were constant companions, even oc- 
cupying the same stall in winter, sharing the same 
food, and always sleeping near each other. 

If one shoots a monkey in South Africa, and 
wounds it, allowing it to escape, there usually come 
droves of its kinspeople, screaming and chattering 
the most diabolical language, seeking to revenge the 
wrong done their tribe. Nothing demonstrates 
plainer that they have a common language ; other- 
wise, how could they understand that one of their 
number had been wounded? It is because of the 
communication of ideas by a common language 
among animals that hunters so fear to allow a 
wounded animal to escape at the beginning of their 
hunting season in certain localities. A wounded bear 
who escapes, for example, will spoil the entire sea- 
son for hunters by spreading the alarm among his 
people. 

Near our country home in Texas my sister found 
a very young red deer one morning just outside the 
garden, and bringing it into the yard, soon had a 
wonderful pet in this dainty spotted child of the 
woods. We knew that its mother was not far away, 
and so we placed salt and food just where the baby 
was found, to attract the mother's attention. In a 







P3 

w 



> 

- 

- - 



%r 




A TAMED DEER OF TEXAS, WHOSE CONSTANT COMPANION AND PLAYMATE WAS 

A RABBIT DOG. BETWEEN THE TWO THERE DEVELOPED, NECESSARILY, A 

COMMON LANGUAGE. 



THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS 113 

few days, we saw the mother, and shortly after- 
wards five grown deer were seen eating the food 
we had placed for the mother. Evidently the news 
had been carried through the pine forests that it was 
safe for deer to come near our home. My sister's 
pet grew rapidly, and became a great friend of our 
yard dog. They often played by running races to- 
gether, the deer would leap over the fence and the 
dog would chase him with great delight. Surely, 
they must have had a spoken common language ! 

No one claims that in the language of animals 
there are principles of construction such as we find 
in the human languages. The term Barbarian 
means those whose language is only a "bar-bar," 
and this is really all that the sound of an unknown 
tongue implied to the cultured Athenians. The 
neighing of horses, the howling of dogs and wolves, 
the mewing of cats, the bleating of sheep, the low- 
ing of cows, the chattering of monkeys and baboons 
is nothing more nor less than their language. And 
it is quite as intelligible to us as is the chattering of 
the Hottentots of Africa. Because we do not speak 
the languages of our animal friends does not take 
away from the genuineness of the languages; we 
might as well claim that because our horse does not 
comprehend what we are saying, that we are not 
speaking a language ! 



114 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

Animals and men, under normal conditions, have 
been friends and companions since the beginning 
of time; and in order that they may convey ideas 
to each other, it is necessary for them to have some 
sort of means of communication. 

As a matter of fact, animal language is quite 
often intelligible to man. Their language might be 
likened to that of a young child that cannot pro- 
nounce distinctly the words we commonly use ; and 
yet we get the meaning from the intonation and 
gesture. 

Any man who has ever owned a horse under- 
stands the meanings of his various actions and vocal 
expressions. There is the neigh of joy, upon re- 
turning home after a hard day's work, the neigh of 
distress, when he has strayed from his companions, 
the neigh of salutation that passes between two 
horses when they meet, and the neigh of terror when 
enemies are near. There is also the neigh of affec- 
tion that is often given to his master when they first 
meet in the morning. Thus, spoken words are not 
necessary to express elemental feelings. 

Elephants readily understand most of the words 
uttered by their masters. Menault tells of an ele- 
phant that was employed to pile up heavy logs. 
The manager, suspecting the keeper of stealing the 
grain set aside for the elephant, accused him of 



THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS 115 

theft, which he denied most vehemently in the pres- 
ence of the elephant. The result was remarkable. 
The animal suddenly laid hold of a large wrapper 
which the man wore round his waist, and tearing it 
open, let out some quarts of rice which the fellow 
had stowed away under the voluminous covering. 

Animals have the power to make themselves 
understood by man, especially when they are in dis- 
tress and wish man to help them. And they often 
combine to help one another. I was on a sheep 
ranch in western Texas once when one of the sheep 
came bleating up to the camp late in the afternoon. 
She uttered the most distressing calls. A friend, 
whom I was visiting, assured me that something 
unusual was wrong. Together we followed the 
sheep back to where she had been feeding in the 
pasture, she going forward in short spurts and con- 
tinually looking back to see if we were coming. She 
finally led us to an old well, and we heard the plain- 
tive voice of her young lamb that had fallen in. As 
the well had no water in it, and was only about six 
feet deep, we secured a ladder and in a few minutes 
the lamb was restored to its mother. She seemed 
delighted at the successful outcome of the accident. 
She had come and told us her troubles and got aid. 

Cats are gifted linguists. By mewing they can 
just as plainly express a desire to have a door 



116 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

opened or closed as if they requested it in so many 
words. A friend has furnished me with an inter- 
esting account of her cat's ability to make herself 
understood. It seems that the cat, with her three 
small kittens, at one time slept in a box prepared 
for her in the kitchen. But one night when it was 
particularly cold, some one left the kitchen window 
open, and late in the night the cat went to her mis- 
tress's bed and mewed continuously until her mis- 
tress arose and went to the kitchen and closed the 
window. The cat was perfectly satisfied, as she had 
made her great need understood. 

The ability that animals have to make their own 
language understood by man is not the only lin- 
guistic power they possess; as already mentioned, 
they are also capable of understanding something 
of human speech. There is no doubt that all do- 
mesticated animals understand the human lan- 
guage; the horse, dog, ox, and sheep comprehend 
a large part of what is said to them, though of 
course they may not understand the precise words 
used. 

I once owned a rabbit dog, "Nimrod," and if he 
never understood another word of the English lan- 
guage, there is no doubt that he knew what the word 
"rabbit" meant. No matter in what manner or way 
I used the word, Nimrod was ready for a hunt, and 



THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS 117 

yelped with glee at the thought of the chase that he 
was to have. I tested him over and over again by 
saying "rabbit hunt" gently; it thrilled him with 
delight, and while he was not very well educated 
in other things, he always lived up to his name. 

The Rev. J. G. Wood speaks of the great indi- 
viduality of character wilich he has observed in 
dogs, and that they unquestionably understand the 
human language. "There was in my pet greyhound 
'Brenda,' there was in my dear lurcher 'Smoker/ 
and there is now in my dear lurcher 'Bar,' and in 
my three setters 'Chance,' 'Quail,' and 'Quince,' a 
refinement of feeling and sagacity infinitely beyond 
that existing in multitudes of the human race, 
whether inhabiting the deserts or the realms of 
civilisation. 

"I cannot better define it than by saying that, if 
I give these dogs a hastily angered word in my 
room, though they have never been beaten, they 
will, with an expression of the most dejected sor- 
row, go into a corner behind some chair, sofa, or 
table, and lie there. Perhaps I may have been 
guilty of a hasty rebuke to them for jogging my 
table or elbow while I was writing, and then con- 
tinued to write on. Some time after, not having 
seen my companions lying on the rug before the 
fire, I have remembered the circumstance, and, in 



118 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

a tone of voice to which they are used, I have said, 
'There, you are forgiven.' In an instant the grey- 
hound Brenda would fly into my lap, and cover me 
with kisses, her heart tumultuously beating. After 
she grew old, her joy at my return home after a 
long absence has at times nearly killed her; and 
when I was away, the bed she loved best was one of 
my old shooting- jackets, but never when I was at 
home." 

The impassable gulf which the writers of old 
created between mankind and the animal kingdom 
was based mainly upon the belief that animals had 
no language, but this has been proved a mistake and 
no longer exists. In the light of modern knowl- 
edge and a better understanding of the marvellous 
theory of evolution, we are thoroughly convinced 
that there is no break whatever in the long chain 
of living beings. Man has no art, has developed no 
thing whatever, no mode of language or communi- 
cation, that is not to be found in some degree among 
animals. They are capable of feeling the same 
emotions as human beings, and are therefore sub- 
ject to the same general laws of life. No science 
has been more beneficial than psychology in prov- 
ing that they are human in all ways; no discovery 
made by the human mind is so poetical and of such 
value as that which leads mankind to recognise some 



THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS 119 

part of himself in every part of Nature, even in the 
language of animals. 

This knowledge of all life is recognised by think- 
ing men the world over, removing forever that arti- 
ficial barrier by which, in his ignorance and preju- 
dice, he has separated himself from his lower broth- 
ers, the animals, denying unto them even a means of 
intelligent communication. This recognition of the 
existence of a common language will go far toward 
establishing the universal brotherhood of all living 
creatures. 



VIII 

IN THEIR BOUDOIRS, HOSPITALS AND CHURCHES 

"Never stoops the soaring vulture 

On his quarry in the desert, 

On the sick or wounded bison, 

But another vulture, watching 

From his high aerial look-out, 

Sees the downward plunge and follows, 

And a third pursues the second, 

Coming from the invisible ether, 

First a speck and then a vulture 

Till the air is dark with pinions." 

MANY animals show a surprising knowledge 
of medical and sanitary laws, but these laws 
vary in the different species as much as they do 
among humans. Animals are divided into as many 
classes and social castes as are mankind ; and those 
that have advanced beyond the nomadic life, and 
have fixed homes with servants and luxuries, natu- 
rally are more refined in the matter of their per- 
sonal care. 

Science may yet prove that the old legend of the 

mermaid sitting on a rock, with a glass and comb in 

120 



IN THEIR BOUDOIRS 121 

her hand, was not so far from truth as we imagine. 
No doubt, the bright-eyed seals looked like sea- 
maidens to many ancient mariners. The originator 
of the mermaid stories had possibly seen seals mak- 
ing their toilettes. These beautiful and affection- 
ate human-like creatures of the water, wear, at- 
tached to their front flipper, a handsome comb-like 
protuberance. When they rest on the rocks, they 
use this little comb to brush the fur on their faces; 
and the Northern fur-seals, when the weather is 
warm, use their flippers as fans. The secret of 
teaching seals to play tambourines is due to their 
desire to comb their fur and fan themselves ! 

Members of the cat family are, perhaps, the 
cleanest of all animals, with the exception of some 
of the opossums. Lions, panthers, and pumas | 

dress themselves very much as the domestic cat per- 
forms her toilette. They use their feet, dipped in 
water, as wash cloths, an<f their tongues as combs 
and brushes. Hares also use their feet to wash 
their faces, and this they do very often, to keep 
their exquisite hair in perfect condition. Dogs en- 
joy wiping their coats against green grass and 
shrubs. 

Certain animals are so fastidious that they have 
community beauty-parlours! Goats, deer, giraffes, 
and antelopes, for example, are very particular 



122 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

about their personal neatness and cleanliness, and 
they come together to assist each other in making 
toilettes. One of the reasons that animals suffer 
so much in captivity, especially when alone, is that 
they have no one to help them dress, and some of 
them, such as the giraffe, cannot reach all parts of 
their bodies. I have seen a young guinea pig that 
had been rescued from a mud puddle being cleaned 
by both of his parents. Water-loving animals, like 
the beavers, seemingly take great pride in their toi- 
lettes, and in this respect they show more human 
traits than any other animal. 

It is a general belief that animals are quite care- 
free, and that when they awake in the morning 
there is nothing for them to do but play or wander 
about. This is a mistaken belief, for they have to 
dress themselves, and this not only means a bath 
in many cases, but a smoothing out of their fur and 
hair. Some are shy and seek the darkest places to 
dress themselves, others, like the dog and cat, seek 
the hearth. Every one has possibly seen a cow and 
horse licking each other, and it is generally believed 
that this implies special friendship between the two, 
but this idea is incorrect; it only implies mutual 
aid in making their toilettes. They have a beauty 
parlour, and thus aid each other. In no way are 
animals better prepared to teach man than in their 



IN THEIR BOUDOIRS 123 

methods of personal cleanliness, and this means 
health. Their utilisation of clay, dust, mud, water, 
and even sunshine to keep their health, far exceeds 
that of mankind. In fact, man's first knowledge of 
simple, natural health remedies came from animals. 
This wisdom they have acquired by ages of instinct 
and reason, for theirs has been the normal life, 
whereas man's is often abnormal. Each animal is 
his own specialist. However, when an animal be- 
comes too ill to doctor himself, he is treated by an- 
other. I have seen a horse licking the wound of one 
of his fellows to stop the pain. 

Animals know better than man what kind of food 
they need, for the simple reason that their tastes are 
natural, while man has allowed his to become per- 
verted. In times of sickness absurd practices have 
been observed. Ice-cream and buttermilk, for ex- 
ample, were for ages refused to typhoid fever pa- 
tients, while to-day they are generally used under 
such circumstances. But the natural desire for 
sour and cold things was always in evidence; ani- 
mals have always depended upon these desires. 

Among them are skilled dietitians, who restrict 
their diet in case of illness, keep quiet, avoid all ex- 
citement, seek restful places where there is plenty 
of fresh air and clean water. If a dog loses his 
appetite, he eats "dog grass," while a sick cat de- 



124 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

lights in catnip. Deer, goats, cows, and sheep, when 
sick seek various medicinal herbs. When deer or 
cattle have rheumatism, they invariably seek a 
health resort where they may bathe in a sulphur 
spring and drink of the healing mineral waters. 
They also know the full value of lying in the warm 
sun. 

Cats are skilled physicians, and have various 
home remedies, such as dipping a feverish foot into 
cold water, or lying before a warm fire, if they have 
a cold. Many animals know how to treat a sore 
eye — by lying in the dark, and repeatedly licking 
their paws and placing them over the afflicted 
member. 

How wonderful would the human race become, if 
it had the strength of a lion, the power of a bear, 
the wisdom of an elephant, the cleverness of a fox, 
and the health of the wild boar ! But these qualities 
are found chiefly among the animals because of the 
marvellous knowledge of the laws of health and 
self-preservation. 

John Wesley claimed, in his directions on the art 
of keeping well, that many of the medicines which 
were used among the common people of his time 
were first discovered by watching animals in their 
medical practices to cure their ills and pains. "If 
they heal animals, they will also heal men," he 



IN THEIR BOUDOIRS 125 

claimed. The American Indians learned most of 
their cures from watching animals, especially the 
cure of such diseases as fever, rheumatism, dysen- 
tery, and snake-bites. A rheumatic old wolf would 
bathe in the warm waters of a sulphur spring; a 
sick and feverish deer would eat the fresh leaves 
of healing ferns, while a wounded hog or bear would 
always seek a red-clay bath to heal the wounds. 
Sick dogs will invariably eat certain weeds, and an 
unwell cat will seek healing mints and grasses. 

Old hunters tell us that a deer after having been 
chased for several hours by dogs, and after having 
escaped them by swimming a cold stream, will, 
upon reaching safety, lie down in the ice and snow. 
If a man did such a thing, he would immediately 
die. But not so with the deer, for he will arise 
about every hour and move around to exercise him- 
self, and on the morrow he is perfectly well. The 
same animal, shut up in a warm barn for the night, 
as has many times been demonstrated with circus 
animals, will be dead by morning. 

From this natural method of healing, mankind 
may learn much, and especially as it pertains to the 
treatment of extreme heat, cold, exhaustion, and 
paralysis of the muscles, and most especially sores 
and wounds. I have seen a wounded hog that had 



126 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

been badly bitten by a dog, wallow in rich red mud 
to stop the flow of blood. 

It is a common practice for a raccoon actually to 
amputate a diseased leg, or one that has been 
wounded by a gun-shot, and wash the stub in cool 
flowing water. When it is healing, he licks it with 
his tongue to massage it, and also to stop the pain 
and reduce the swelling. This wisdom is often 
classed by the unknowing under the term instinct, 
whereas it displays no less skill and knowledge than 
that of our modern surgery. The intelligence of 
the raccoon stands very high in the animal world. 

Foxes, when caught in a trap, will very often 
gnaw off a limb. This requires a special power 
and a moral energy that few men possess. 

William J. Long, in the Outlook, tells of an 
unusual proof of animal surgery in the case of an 
old muskrat that had cut off both of his forelegs, 
probably at different times, and had grown very 
wise in avoiding man-made traps, and when found, 
had covered the wound with a sticky vegetable gum 
from a pine tree. "An old Indian who lives and 
hunts on Vancouver Island told me recently," said 
Mr. Long, "that he had several times caught beaver 
that had previously cut their legs off to escape from 
traps, and that two of them had covered the wounds 
thickly with gum, as the muskrat had done. Last 



IN THEIR BOUDOIRS 127 

spring the same Indian caught a bear in a deadfall. 
On the animal's side was a long rip from some other 
bear's claw, and the wound had been smeared 
thickly with soft spruce resin. This last experience 
corresponds closely with one of my own. I shot a 
bear years ago in northern New Brunswick that 
had received a gunshot wound, which had raked him 
badly and then penetrated the leg. He had plugged 
the wound carefully with clay, evidently to stop 
the bleeding, and then had covered the broken skin 
with sticky mud from the river's brink, to keep the 
flies away from the wound and give it a chance to 
heal undisturbed. It is noteworthy here that the 
bear uses either gum or clay indifferently, while the 
beaver and muskrat seem to know enough to avoid 
the clay, which would be quickly washed off in the 
water." 

Animals not only know how to doctor themselves 
when they are sick, but some of them, such as the 
fox, have learned how to make artificial heat by 
covering green leaves with dirt. And while they 
do not make fire, their homes are often heated in 
this practical way, and thus sickness avoided. Do- 
mestic horses and dogs wear hats in summer, and 
possibly in the future they will learn the enormous 
importance of wearing clothes! Trained monkeys 



128 THE HUMAN SIDE OE ANIMALS 

already take great delight in dressing up, and dogs 
like smart suits. 

Monkeys show the greatest interest and broth- 
erly love when one of their number is injured. 
Watson tells of a female monkey that was shot and 
carried into a tent. Several of her tribe advanced 
with frightful gestures, and only stopped when met 
with a gun. The chief of the tribe then came for- 
ward, chattering and remonstrating vigorously. 
But as he came nearer, there was every evidence of 
grief and supplication for the body. As he was 
given the body, he affectionately took it in his arms 
and slowly moved to his companions, and like a 
silent funeral procession they all walked away. 

Nor does their interest cease with life, for we are 
told by no less authority than Col. Theodore Roose- 
velt of a large grizzly bear that was discovered 
lying across the trail in the woods. The hunter 
shot her as she was preparing to charge him, and 
later he examined the spot where she was lying, 
and found that it was the newly made grave of her 
cub. Evidently some animal had killed the cub in 
her absence, and she, in her grief, was determined 
to avenge the wrong by lying in wait for the enemy. 

Public meetings for civic council and religious 
worship are not confined to man alone. In Mac- 
grave's History of Brazil we are told of a species 



IN THEIR BOUDOIRS 129 

of South American monkey known as the ouraines, 
which the natives call preachers of the woods. 
These highly intelligent creatures assemble every 
morning and evening, when the leader takes a place 
apart from the rest and addresses them from his 
pulpit or platform. Having taken his position, he 
signals to the others to be seated, after which he 
speaks to them in a language loud and rapid, with 
the gestures of a Billy Sunday, the audience lis- 
tening in profound silence. He then signals again 
with his paws, when all cry out together in appar- 
ently confused noises, until another signal for 
silence comes from their leader. Then follows 
another discourse, at the close of which the assembly 
disperses. Macgrave attempts no explanation as 
to the object of these addresses; but if his accounts 
be true, surely they must have as much meaning 
for the monkeys as many of our public lectures and 
church services have for us! No doubt much of 
the advice imparted concerns the personal and col- 
lective welfare of the tribe members. 



IX 

SELF-DEFENCE AND HOME-GOVERNMENT 

"In the days of yore, when the world was young, 
Sages of asses spoke, and poets sung; 

In God's own book we find their humble name, 
Some enrolled upon the scroll of fame." 

THERE is no phase of animal life which is 
more interesting than that through which Na- 
ture governs and protects her children. Each and 
every species of animal possesses the method of 
self-defence and protection best adapted to it. 
Most of the larger animals are of themselves so 
powerful that they need no protection other than 
that afforded by their strength, while most of the 
weaker and less aggressive animals are provided 
with some special method of defence. 

The tiger, lion, panther, and wolf have formida- 
ble claws and teeth; while the shark has such im- 
mense jaws that he can sever the head of a goat 
at one bite. And most of them are in reality tyrants. 
They rule by tyranny — the oppression of the weak 
by the strong, whether that strength be physical 

130 



HOME-GOVERNMENT 131 

or mental, — a trait as common in animals as in 
man. Among the animals it takes the commonest 
form, and they not only oppress the weak, but 
actually kill and eat them, even though they often- 
times are members of the same family. They are 
exactly like human cannibals, no better and no 
worse. 

Flight is perhaps the simplest and most natural 

method of defence. The swifter animals, however, 
such as deer, gazelles, and hares, which may easily 
escape by running their fastest, do not always use 
this method, but have other means so ingenious as 
to be real arts. Wolves, when they see that they are 
outnumbered, will sometimes escape by following 
the exact tracks of a single leader through the snow, 
and from all appearances only one has passed the 
way over which a hundred may have gone. Hares 
will separate and run in opposite directions, while 
gazelles, if too closely pursued, will jump to one 
side and lie flat on the earth to escape notice, and 
as soon as the enemies have passed, run in the oppo- 
site direction. 

It oftentimes happens that aggressively disposed 
animals, like cowardly men, are apt to try battle 
with the unlikeliest adversaries. A missionary from 
India tells the story of an alligator who was enjoy- 
ing a noonday sleep on the bank of a river, when an 



132 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

immense tiger emerged from the jungle, made 
straight for the sleeping saurian until within leap- 
ing distance, when he sprang on the alligator's back, 
and gained a strangle hold before the sleeping mon- 
ster could awake. At first the tiger was master, 
for the alligator could not bring his .huge jaws into 
action, and while lashing viciously at the tiger with 
his tail, he was dragged into the jungle. What 
happened there no one could see, but in a few mo- 
ments the tiger dashed out of the jungle and dis- 
appeared in the cane brakes, and the alligator 
reappeared and crawled into the water. 

The ape and the baboon are the most skilled of 
all animals in making their flight. They use every 
method known to man, and because of their swift- 
ness of action excel man in certain ways. Like 
man, in the face of danger, they show great bravery 
and never lose their presence of mind. The ape is 
fast disappearing before man, but against other 
animals and Nature he can well protect himself. 
He is even braver than the lion, who in captivity 
allows himself to be petted, but rarely is this true 
of the ape, and then only when conditions seem 
insurmountable. 

In making his escape from an enemy, the ape 
directs his flight in the most self-possessed and 
human-like way, never losing his head, and taking 



HOME-GOVERNMENT 133 

advantage of the first shelter or protection that he 
meets ; if the young, or females, or aged linger be- 
hind, a strong army of males bravely returns to 
rescue them at the danger of losing their own lives. 
Many of their brave deeds, if recorded in history, 
would compare favourably with those of mankind! 
Too often has a poor, sickly ape, which by his very 
feebleness allowed himself to be captured and 
placed in a zoo, been compared to human beings. 
Even in spirit and movements he has been con- 
sidered as a human caricature and heaped with ridi- 
cule. We have continually considered his defects, 
without noticing his better qualities. We would 
have a much higher idea of his great family, if we 
would take a human derelict and compare him to 
an ape ruler! This comparison would be more just. 

Certain of the baboon tribes which live among the 
rocks of high mountains and cliffs, if pursued by 
enemies, protect themselves by ingeniously rolling 
immense stones down upon their foes. They also 
hurl with great force small stones about the size 
of one's hand. As these tribes have each from one 
hundred to three hundred members, they constitute 
a formidable grenade army! 

In addition to their skilled methods of flight, the 
baboons, apes, and monkeys come next to certain 
of the cat tribes as the greatest fighters in the ani~ 



134 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

mal world. This is astonishing when we remember 
that these animals are not professional warriors, 
nor do they have to fight to obtain their food. Their 
greatest defence is their quickness and powers of 
biting. When they are attacked by a dog, they 
usually bite off a foot or an ear, or leave him minus 
a tail! 

One of the bravest and fiercest of fighters is the 
bull-dog. Three of these animals together have 
been known to capture and hold a large bull. Deer, 
when fighting among themselves, often play more 
than anything, and are not serious. Red deer sel- 
dom injure one another with their long antlers, 
but they could easily kill a dog or even a man. 
Stags, however, often fight to death, in some in- 
stances locking horns and tumbling over a precipice. 

The most ingenious of all the horned fighters is 
the sable antelope, whose clever system of self- 
defence might well be taught in war-schools. His 
horns are long, sharp-pointed, and bend backwards. 
When wounded, or attacked by wolves or dogs, he 
lies down, and scientifically covers his back by rapid 
fencing with his pointed horns. He can quickly 
kill any dog that attacks him in this way. 

Occasionally great battles take place between a 
buffalo and a lion, or more often two or three lions 
attack a buffalo, who rarely escapes them. The 




American Museum of Natural History, New York 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT HAS MANY MEANS OF DEFENCE, NOT THE LEAST 
OF WHICH IS HIS AGILITY IN CLIMBING TO INACCESSIBLE PLACES. 



HOME-GOVERNMENT 135 

strength of a lion is almost beyond our compre- 
hension when we remember that one can actually 
carry a cow over an ordinary-sized fence. 

A most unique fighter is the giraffe. He has 
neither claws nor sharp teeth with which to defend 
himself; so, if he gets angry with one of his kind, 
he deliberately uses his long neck like a pile driver 
would use a sledge hammer. Swinging it round 
and round, he lets his head descend upon his ad- 
versary like a heavy ax! The two animals use the 
same kind of tactics, and bracing themselves so as 
to stand the blows, they fight until one has to give 
in. Their heads are furnished with two small knob- 
like horns which only protect them from the heavy 
blows without serving as offensive weapons. 

Most singular and amusing of all methods of 
self-defence are those which entirely depend for 
their efficiency upon bluff, or pretence. The 
chameleon, for example, erects his snake-like hood, 
though he is harmless, and at the most could 
scarcely injure the smallest animal. Equally curi- 
ous are the methods of skunks and polecats, which 
project against enemies a highly disagreeable fluid. 

Passive modes of defence are as many and varied 
as are the active; one of the strangest and most 
inexplicable of these is that known as spontaneous 
amputation, technically termed autotomy. The 



136 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

lizard, for example, when captured, will abruptly 
break loose his tail in order to escape; and certain 
wood rats, when caught, loosen the skin on their 
tails and deliberately slip away. Autotomy not 
only permits flight, but also defends the animal 
against the most adverse conditions. Nearest akin 
to this — defence by means of amputation — is the 
practice of bears and raccoons of amputating their 
limbs when caught in steel traps. 

Mimicry, which is treated under another chapter, 
comes under the head of passive defence, and form 
and colour play an important part in it. Strangely 
enough, animals which have never resorted to 
mimicry as a means of protection, when associated 
with others who practice it, take on the habit them- 
selves. This may possibly be due to the fact that 
new enemies are constantly arising. 

As human sharpshooters dress in garments of 
the same colour as the woods in which they hunt, so 
many animals use this principle of imitation. The 
colour of most animals is very similar to their sur- 
roundings. This enables them to lie in wait for 
prey, a practice as old as the hillsides with animals. 
They have learned the extreme value of silence, 
and that they must remain at times motionless. 
This is especially noticeable with crocodiles, which 
wait for whole days without moving, concealed in 



HOME-GOVERNMENT 137 

the water or deep grass, until their prey comes 
within striking distance, when they pounce upon it. 
The same is true of the python snake, which hangs 
from a tree so immovable that he appears like a 
vine or a branch of the tree. If an animal attempts 
to pass, he drops upon it. 

Perhaps the most unique and successful method 
of passive defence is the feigning of death, or "play- 
ing 'possum" met with in several animals, such as 
the red fox, the opossum, occasionally the elephant, 
and several of the snakes. On many occasions I 
have been 'possum hunting in the South and found 
my dog barking at an apparently dead 'possum. As 
soon as these animals are approached by larger and 
stronger enemies, they drop absolutely motionless 
on the ground and close their eyes as though they 
were dead. Here they remain until the enemy 
either destroys them, carries them away, or leaves 
them alone. If left alone for a few moments, they 
immediately spring to their feet and make their 
escape. 

Elephants often feign death when captured, in 
order to gain their liberty. Animal catchers tell 
many interesting tales of elephants feigning weak- 
ness from which they fall to the earth and later 
apparently die. In many instances the fastenings 
are removed from their legs and head and the 



138 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

carcass is abandoned as useless, when to the utter 
astonishment of all — before the captors get out of 
sight — the animal springs up and dashes away to 
the forest, screaming with joy at the triumph of 
its deception. 

Many animals deliberately assume a frightful, 
terrifying or grotesque appearance. This they do 
by inflating their bodies, by erecting hair, skin, or 
folds, or by unusual poses. Darwin speaks of the 
hissing of certain snakes, the rattle of the rattle- 
snake, the grating of the scales of the echis, each 
of which serves to frighten or terrify the enemy. 

Bluffing is another form of defence that many 
animals use. The cobra, for example, when dis- 
turbed, raises its immense hood in a most terrifying 
attitude ! Many of the lizards use the same tactics ; 
while the horned toads of America when disturbed 
actually eject blood from their eyes. Every one 
is familiar with the cat's habit of raising the fur on 
his back when molested by a dog. All bluffing 
animals, when in danger, try to assume a pose that 
will make them look most dangerous and impres- 
sive to their enemies, and there is little doubt that 
in most cases they succeed very well, for we have 
all seen a dog slink away from a menacing cat 

The elk or moose, whose home is in the northern 
part of America and Europe, is a powerful and 



HOME-GOVERNMENT 139 

large animal, sometimes seven feet in height, and 
is able to endure much cold. He has many enemies 
among animals and mankind, and during the sum- 
mer season he is quite able to protect himself, but 
in winter there is considerable danger from hordes 
of wolves. This is especially true just after a heavy 
snowstorm, if the snow is wet and melting. When 
it is dry and frozen, he can travel over it with great 
speed, and this he does by a most unusual trot which 
carries him along much faster than the trotting 
gait of a horse. Thus he is able to escape the 
hungry, carnivorous wolves, whose courage in- 
creases with appetite. If crowded too close, he is 
able also to protect himself by the most terrific 
blows of his fore-feet. 

But when the spring weather sets in, and the 
snows begin to melt underneath, leaving the upper 
crust sufficiently strong to support the weight of 
lighter and smaller animals, such as wolves, espe- 
cially when they travel swiftly, he is in great 
danger. For with every step he sinks to the belly 
in the snow, while his enemies can walk right up to 
his head and shoulders without his being able to 
strike or paw them with his dangerous hoofs. The 
advantage seems to be with the wolves, and if ever 
they bring the moose to bay in the snow, his life is 
doomed. For they care little for his arrow-like 



140 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

horns, but boldly jump at his throat and kill him. 
Herein comes the elk's wisdom — he deliberately 
sets to work, before the snow melts, and builds for 
himself and family an elk-yard, which is nothing 
more than a large space of ground on which the 
snow is smoothed or trampled down until it becomes 
a hard surface on which he can walk ; it is also sur- 
rounded by a high wall of snow, through which are 
certain exits that allow him to pass out, if he desires. 
All the enclosed space is not smoothed down, but 
parts of it only are cut up into roads through which 
he may pass very swiftly. Woe unto the daring 
wolves that enter his snowy fortification — his "No 
Man's Land" — for sure death awaits them! 

A sense of law, order, government; the sacred 
ness of family ties — all these aid in the protection 
of animals. Family life with them originated just 
as it did in the human world. The social instinct 
and the moral sentiments which arise from social 
relations in man and animal are the same. Moral 
obligations, especially in relation to family ties and 
conjugal unions of animals, are in many cases 
sacred binders to such ties. The bear, for example, 
is proverbial for his conjugal faithfulness. The 
married life of most animals is strictly moral, and 
most of them are monogamists and have reached 
the highest form of family association and life. 



HOME-GOVERNMENT 141 

In those places where they live promiscuously, 
it gives them the same protection in herds as it does 
among our lower savages. Cattle, sheep, and 
horses unite for mutual protection; wolves band 
together in packs; and after they have been do- 
mesticated there is still not only a strong desire to 
band together for social purposes, but also to hold 
courts of justice. It sometimes happens that an 
angered husband takes the law in his hands, like 
uncivilised men, and beats his wife. 

In the development and organisation of social 
and civil life the horse and the goat hold the fore- 
most position. It corresponds to that of man among 
the lower animals. They do not believe in mon- 
archies, but strictly in republics, or rather, a democ- 
racy where all power comes from the working class. 
The claims of the working class to the exercise of 
supreme control in all political affairs are prac- 
tically realised. Among a herd of wild Arabian 
horses, the leading stallion, or so-called king, is 
really only the father of the tribe ; his functions are 
paternal rather than regal. If he may be said to 
reign in a certain sense, the true workers rule, and 
his scouts and sentinels obey his wishes which the 
workers have influenced and formulated. 

The existence of but one king leaves no room for 
dynastic troubles and rivalries which disturb, so 



142 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

often, our human countries and empires with such 
dreadful results. If two rival kings arise at the 
same time in a herd of horses, instead of forming 
factions in the state which end in civil war, they 
fight it out personally until one of them is killed 
or defeated. Once in a great while the other horses 
intervene, and drive the less desirable, or the false- 
claimant of power, away from the herd and its 
grazing territory. In these troubles the real king 
has little or no power, all activities are carried on 
by the workers. 

If by chance he dies or is captured, anothefr 
king, chosen by the herd, immediately assumes the 
kingship. It is a well-known fact that if the king 
of a herd of wild horses is caught, it is not uncom- 
mon for his herd to remain as near him as possible, 
and in their attempt to release him are often 
trapped themselves. The king has no heirs, either 
apparent or presumptive, and no right of succes- 
sion is recognised. Any member of the herd, pro- 
vided the workers choose him, may become the king, 
as every American school boy is a possible president 
of the United States. 

Among many animals there is a perfect social 
and industrial organisation in which the division 
of labour is far better adjusted than in many human 
organisations. This, of course, is the result of 



HOME-GOVERNMENT 143 

gradual growth and evolution just as it is in the 
human species. This can easily be proved among 
animals by their more primitive and savage habits. 
Monkeys, for example, in civilised monkey com- 
munities, differ very greatly from those of wilder 
and less trained districts. They are constantly 
changing their habits, becoming more and more 
civilised by improving their methods of work and 
their moral and religious life as well. In many 
cases they have ceased to kill members of their own 
tribe for small offences for which they used to kill, 
and the cleanness and beauty of their home lives 
seem to increase with the years. 

It oftentimes happens, however, that powerful 
ape and baboon colonies relapse into barbarism, 
and roam, plunder, rob and murder, like a pack 
of uncivilised wolves or hyenas. They seem all at 
once to forget their peaceful industries and lose all 
desire for clean and right living. And strangely 
enough, when they once turn bad, they seldom re- 
form. Some naturalists believe that they are led 
astray by a wicked king or ruler who comes into 
power ; the natives believe the evil spirits have sud- 
denly taken possession of them. 

There is unquestionably, in the life of many tribal 
animals, a definite historical connection between 
the mother tribe and its colonies. This relation 



144 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

extends to the tribes of tribes, and thus there is an 
international relationship between the various mem- 
bers of a large number of tribes. These communi- 
ties share the same likes, dislikes, hatreds, and 
aspirations. A missionary friend told of his experi- 
ence with monkey folk, and how r once, when hunt- 
ing, his gun was accidentally discharged, instantly 
wounding a large semi-tame baboon near his home. 
He hastened to help the injured animal, but saw 
that the relatives had crowded around and were ter- 
rorised, as they thought it was intentional. They 
not only followed him to his home, but returned in 
the night and actually tore his fence down. For 
months he was afraid to leave his wife alone during 
the day. And the natives reported that large tribes 
of monkey folk immediately came into the com- 
munity from remoter regions and were distinctly 
on the war path. It was evident that their unjust 
antipathy was extended to all the kinspeople. 

This is evidence of hereditary enmity, such as is 
common among families, tribes, and clans, and it 
often takes the form of feuds, which are still in 
vogue in the mountainous counties of the South. 
The baboons had suffered wrongs and never forgot 
it, and it was transmitted to their offspring. 

The ability to use weapons, tools, and war instru- 
ments is not exclusively human. Even fish are 





■ ' ! 




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- i # 1 






Wttk'-FfS 


&£^H 








5^ ! 


1 




• s 


*K 




/.*> <#•■? 





THIS PREHISTORIC MONSTER WAS EQUIPPED NOT ONLY WITH A PAIR OF 
STRONG HORNS, BUT WITH A SHIELD BACK OF THEM AS WELL. 



HOME-GOVERNMENT 145 

capable of reaching their prey at a long distance. 
The toocotes jaculator, which lives in the rivers of 
India, and feeds upon insects, cannot afford to wait 
until the insects which thrive upon the leaves of 
aquatic plants fall into the water. So as he cannot 
leap high enough to catch them, he fills his mouth 
with water and squirts it at an insect with such aim 
and force that he rarely fails to knock the insect 
into the water where he can easily catch it. Many 
other animals squirt various liquids, occasionally in 
attack, but most times in defence. The fish makes 
a veritable squirt-gun of his mouth. 

Beavers use sticks, chips, and even stones in 
building their dams ; and their engineering abilities 
are astounding. They are also capable of meeting 
emergencies, as shown by the following incident. 
A farmer in Michigan discovered one morning, just 
after a flood, that all his potato sacks, which had 
been hung on a back fence to dry, had suddenly 
disappeared. A few days later he found them in a 
nearby beavers' colony, used in rebuilding their 
dam, which had suddenly overflowed. The beavers 
wasted no time, when they discovered their danger, 
in meeting the emergency by using the sacks to pre- 
vent the destruction of their home. 

Monkeys make skilled use of clubs and stones in 
capturing their prey and fighting their enemies. 



146 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

The skill with which some of them throw pebbles 
would lead us to believe they have already reached 
the degree of civilisation that many tribes of savages 
had reached only a few years ago, when they learned 
to use the boomerang and lasso. Some naturalists 
claim that monkeys actually set pitfalls for their 
enemies and lie in wait for them to be caught, just 
as a hunter would do. 

Elephants also know the value of clubs in war- 
fare, and will often use a broken limb of a dead 
tree as a weapon of defence. The story is told and 
vouched for by Mr. William B. Smith that on his 
farm, near Mount Lookout, a few years ago a 
donkey grazed in the same pasture with a ferocious 
bull. He was frequently attacked by the bull, and 
always got the worst of the fight. His feet were 
no match for the bull's horns, but one day the mule 
grabbed a long pole in his mouth, and, whirling it 
about, almost killed the bull, and henceforth the 
two lived on the best of terms in the same pasture. 

I have a friend who owns a cow that knows ex- 
actly how to lift an iron latch to the barn door with 
her tongue and open the door. Innumerable times 
she has opened a gate in the same way to permit 
her calf to go free with her. So skilled is she in 
the manipulation of doors and latches that we are 



HOME-GOVERNMENT 147 

tempted to believe in some previous state of ex- 
istence she was a professional lock-picker! 

Cats and dogs are famed for their ability to open 
doors by pulling latch-strings. And not a few 
cats show a strong desire to study music by walking 
up and down the keyboard of a piano! 

Monkeys who live near the seashore show won- 
derful aptness in opening oysters and shell-fish 
with sharp stones, exactly as a man would do. Mon- 
keys have already reached the degree of civiliza- 
tion where they select the stones best suited for their 
work, and from their progress in the past it is rea- 
sonable to believe that in the near future they will 
not only be able to make their own tools — thus 
placing themselves on a mental footing with our 
flint-chipping ancestors of the early stone age, — but 
will also learn the use of fire and eventually the use 
of guns and ammunition, which marks one of the 
most important epochs in the evolution of the hu- 
man species. 

The chimpanzees, gorillas, and apes of the Af- 
rican forests have many times been observed in the 
act of piling brushwood upon the fires left by 
travellers, and though they do not know how to 
kindle a fire, they have learned how to keep it burn- 
ing. The tame ones soon learn how to ignite 



148 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

matches, and often do great harm by starting for- 
est fires. 

But they show quite as much intelligence about 
the use of fire as the average small child. In fact, 
it has been thought by a number of great scholars 
that man had not yet made his appearance upon 
the earth in the miocene age, and that all the mar- 
vellous chipped flints of that age belong to semi- 
human pithecoid apes of wonderful intelligence. 
There is surely nothing in the facts of natural his- 
tory, nor in Darwin's theory of evolution, that 
makes such a supposition unbelievable. 

Baboons use poles as levers, stones as hammers, 
and seem to understand the more simple mechan- 
ical devices. Prantl claims that man is the only 
animal capable of using fire but not a few baboons 
know how to strike a match, heap dried leaves over 
the blaze to make it burn, and then heap on dead 
wood to feed the fire. This knowledge with them, 
exactly as with primitive peoples, is a product of 
long experience and does not show any mathemati- 
cal truths or principles any more than making a 
direct cut across a field implies "knowledge of the 
relation of a hypothenuse to the two other sides of 
a right-angled triangle/' This is what Prantl calls 
"spontaneous mathematical thinking." 

I knew of a tame ape in Chicago that learned to 



HOME-GOVERNMENT 149 

swing from the end of a clothes-line and seemed 
to enjoy it very much. The line was just the right 
length and properly hung so as to allow the ape 
to swing out from a kitchen window and touch the 
ground. Just for fun, some one cut a piece from 
the line so that he could not reach the ground; 
immediately the ape hunted another piece of cord, 
tying it to the end of his line so as to increase its 
length, and much to his delight, continued to swing 
on the line. 

The distinctive features of animal protection and 
home government, especially in the higher groups, 
may compare favourably with any of the methods 
used by civilised man. This is true both of their 
offensive and defensive contrivances and for their 
monarchies and republics. They use shells, scales, 
plates of every kind, with innumerable modifications 
for various purposes — spines and allied armaments 
— all shapes and sizes ; poisonous secretions, deadly 
odours, strong claws and teeth wielded by strong 
muscles, and form colonies that are more than a 
gregarious association. In most cases, they have 
communities composed of individuals living indi- 
vidual lives, yet which act in cases of need as one 
unit. 



X 



ANIMAL ARCHITECTS, ENGINEERS, AND HOUSE 
BUILDERS 

"The heart is hard that is not pleased 

With sight of animals enjoying life, 

Nor feels their happiness augment his own." 

THE most popular and perhaps the most in- 
teresting department of natural-history study 
is that which treats of the manner in which animals 
utilise the various materials of the universe for pur- 
poses of protection, for war and defence, for rai- 
ment, food, and even the luxuries of life. Man, 
by his superior power of adaptation, excels the 
lower animals in providing for the comforts of life ; 
but, on the other hand, in such practical arts as 
engineering and domestic architecture man fre- 
quently finds himself an amateur in comparison. 
With all man's inventions he has not been able to 
equal some of the remarkable results produced by 
some animals. The beaver, for example, shows a 
more profound knowledge of hydraulics than man 
himself. The power possessed by these craftsmen, 

150 



ANIMAL ARCHITECTS 151 

not only in felling trees, but in duly selecting the 
best places for making homes and in appropriating 
substances suitable for their needs, is a never-end- 
ing marvel! 

Nowhere can we find a greater animal-workman 
than the beaver. He belongs to the great burrowing 
family, and is also extremely graceful in the water. 
Long ago he learned the advantages of co-opera- 
tion, and he unites with his fellows in building dams 
of felled trees, which have been cut up into suitable 
length for use in damming up water places. These 
are skilfully placed, and with the aid of mud, control 
the level of the water in selected places as effi- 
ciently as man could do. As a social animal, the 
beaver should be ranked among the first ; of course, 
the various marmots are extremely sociable, but 
they ordinarily live quite independently of each 
other, except in cases where they chance to congre- 
gate because of favourable conditions. The beavers, 
on the other hand, thoroughly understand the bene- 
fits of united labour, and work together for the good 
of the community. 

Beavers, if their skill were generally known, 
would have a great reputation among their human 
friends. Recently, at the New York Zoological 
Gardens, a visitor was pointing out different an- 
imals to his little son, and when he came to the 



152 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

beaver pond, referred to two of these dam-builders 
and tree-cutters, which were swimming through the 
water with large sticks in their mouths, as big rats ! 

Young beavers make their appearance in May, 
and there are usually from four to eight to a fam- 
ily. These kittens, as they are called, are odd look- 
ing little fellows, with big heads, large sharp teeth, 
flat tails, like little fat paddles, and delicate, soft, 
mouse-like fur, not at all coarse like that of their 
parents. If taken at an early age they make nice 
pets and are easily domesticated. In the early days 
of American history it was not uncommon to see 
one running around an Indian lodge, playing like 
a child with the little Indians, and frequently re- 
ceiving with the papoose nourishment from the 
mother's breast. Strangely enough, the cry of the 
young beaver is exactly like that of the baby child. 
One of my friends in Michigan recently stopped at 
an Indian's house to see a real live baby beaver. 
"He cry all same as papoose," remarked the squaw, 
as she brought the young beaver out of the house, 
giving him a little slap to start him crying — and cry 
he did! 

The body of a grown beaver is usually about 
thirty inches long, and something over eleven inches 
wide ; it weighs about sixty pounds. The f orepaws 
are quite small in comparison with the rest of the 



ANIMAL ARCHITECTS 153 

body ; the hind feet are larger, webbed like a duck's 
feet, and are the principal motive power in swim- 
ming. The most unique feature of the animal's 
body is the famous mud-plastering tail, which is 
ofttimes a foot long, five inches in width, and an 
inch in thickness. The colour of the beaver varies ; 
there are black beavers, white beavers, and brov/n 
beavers. The black are the best known. 

The beaver is well equipped for defending him- 
self, and for carrying out his architectural schemes. 
His jet black tail, which is like a large paddle, 
covered with horny scales, he uses in many ways. 
With it he turns the body in any desired direction 
while swimming and diving, and, in time of dan- 
ger, employs it as a sound board, or paddle. When 
alarmed at night, he dives into the water, and, by 
means of his tail, splashes so violently as to give 
warning to all beavers within a half-mile distance. 
The stroke of the tail sounds not unlike a pistol 
shot. As soon as a beaver sounds the alarm all 
others dive underneath the water. His teeth are 
expressly suited by nature for cutting and chisel- 
ling out trees. 

The dam is the beaver's masterpiece. In the alder 
or birch swamps, where he usually lives, he oft- 
times builds from six to eight little dams from knoll 
to knoll, and in this way makes a pond sufficiently 



154 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

large for his purposes. The average beaver dam 
is from twenty to thirty feet long; but they differ 
greatly in size. There is one on a branch of Arnold's 
River in Canada, where the stream is twenty-one 
feet wide and two feet deep, which is especially 
well built. The dam is seven feet high, and rises 
five to six feet above the pool. It is constructed 
mainly of alder poles, which are arranged side by 
side, and their length is parallel with the direction 
of the current. To create a pond for himself and 
provide against drought is the chief aim of the 
beaver in building his dam. 

Just how these dams are built; who plans the 
job; who sees that it is carried out; whether each 
works under his own impulse or whether they co- 
operate; when they begin and how they finish; all 
these things are unknown to man. The investiga- 
tion of such questions is almost impossible. It is 
generally believed, however, that beavers work in 
gangs under a common "boss" or "overseer," and 
it is a known fact that they work only at night. 
During a dark, rainy night they accomplish twice 
as much as on a moonlight night. No doubt the 
darkness gives them a sense of security which aids 
their work. Anyway, in the completed job, we see 
the evidences of a skilled engineer and architect, 
and one who knew thoroughly what he was about. 



ANIMAL ARCHITECTS 155 

The size of a dam depends entirely upon the 
wishes? of its builders and location and general 
conditions of land and water. Sometimes the more 
ambitious beavers build a dam a quarter of a mile 
in length. They employ exactly the same principle 
as is used in making a mill-dam. Beavers, however, 
were building dams long before millers came into 
existence, and their methods are fully as scientific 
as those of man. Mill-dams usually run straight 
across a stream, while beaver-dams are so curved 
that the water is gently turned to each side. In 
this way the beaver-dams are capable of resisting 
immense quantities of water which in its impetuous 
rush would carry away the ordinary mill-dam. 
Many scientific thinkers claim that the beaver em- 
ploys this principle of construction without know- 
ing it. How absurd! Who can be sure that he 
doesn't know it? Scientists of the old school desire 
proof before they will accept anything as a fact, 
yet they themselves repeatedly make wild state- 
ments without proper substantiation. 

It is not unusual for a beaver family to select a 
home on the bank of a pond, lake, or stream whose 
waters are sufficiently deep and abundant for all 
their needs. In such a case dams are not needed, 
and regulation beaver houses are rarely constructed. 
Instead, apartment houses are hollowed out from 



156 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

the banks. But in the case of a town-site on shal- 
low, narrow waters, dams are absolutely necessary 
to insure sufficient depth to conceal the beavers, and 
to prevent obstruction by ice. The entrance to the 
beaver's home is almost always under the water. 
This arrangement safeguards the home from preda- 
tory enemies. 

During the summer months, beavers are inclined 
to live alone, except when a new home occupies 
their attention; but when autumn comes, the vari- 
ous families of a neighbourhood meet and remain 
together through the following spring. In the lat- 
ter part of August the busy season begins, and 
each and every beaver, old and young, aids in re- 
pairing the dam and dwellings, which have been 
allowed to fall into decay. The cutting and felling 
of trees is the first important work to be done. 

These interesting "tree-cutters" usually work in 
pairs, and are sometimes assisted by younger bea- 
vers ; thus the family works together in cutting and 
felling the trees, but in other forms of labour it 
seems that several families work together. If only 
two are engaged in felling a tree, they work by 
turns, and alternately keep guard; this is a well- 
known practice of many animals both in work and 
play. As soon as the tree begins to bend and crack, 
they cease cutting and make sure of their definite 



ANIMAL ARCHITECTS 157 

direction of escape, then they continue to gnaw 
until it begins to fall, whereupon they plunge into 
the stream, usually, where they remain for some 
time lest the noise of the falling tree attract the 
attention of enemies. 

Their next work is to cut up the tree into sec- 
tions which they can remove. If the tree is not 
too large and has already fallen in the water, they 
take it as it is, otherwise it must be cut up and 
conveyed to the dam. No professional lumberman 
better understands how to transport lumber to a 
desired place than beavers. They realise the value 
of water transportation and thoroughly appreciate 
that trees can only be removed downhill. From 
tame beavers we have learned that they remove 
smaller limbs by seizing them with their teeth, 
throwing the loose end over their shoulder, and 
then dragging them to their destination. 

These water-loving animals rely mainly upon 
their native element for the movement of lumber 
and food, and to aid this they employ engineering 
skill that is rivalled only by their feats of tree- 
cutting and dam-building. This constructive faculty 
is shown largely in their canal-digging. From one 
small stream to another, or from one lake to an- 
other, they excavate canals from three to four feet 
in width, with a water depth of two feet, and oc- 



158 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

casionally one hundred and fifty to two hundred 
feet in length. The amount of labour they perform 
is almost unbelievable ; every particle of dirt is car- 
ried away between their chin and forepaws. This 
earth is sometimes used in plastering up a nearby 
dam or repairing their winter home. Small and 
tender twigs are transported to the vicinity of their 
lodges, and then sunk for winter food. 

Mr. Morgan has made a close study of these 
canals, and in speaking of them he says that when 
he first saw them, and heard them called canals, 
he doubted their artificial origin; but upon exam- 
ination he found that they were unquestionably 
beaver excavations. He considers these artificial 
canals, by means of which the beavers carry their 
wood to their lodges, the supreme act of intelli- 
gence on the part of these wise animals. Even the 
dam, remarkable as it is, does not show evidence of 
greater skill than that displayed in the making of 
these canals. No one who has ever understood the 
ways of the beaver can believe that he is not ex- 
ceedingly intelligent. The banks of these canals 
soon become covered with growing plants and moss, 
and they look not unlike slow sluggish streams 
winding through the marshy lands. 

The beaver huts, or "lodges" as they are usually 
called, look not unlike beehives, somewhat broader 




THE BEAVER IS THE GREATEST OF ALL ANIMAL ARCHITECTS. 
EQUALLED ONLY BY HIS PATIENCE. 



HIS SKILL IS 



ANIMAL ARCHITECTS 159 

at the base, with thick walls and roof, four to six 
feet in thickness. They are formed of numbers of 
poles, twigs, and small branches of trees, woven 
together and plastered with mud, in the same way 
that the dams are made. Inside the house are cir- 
cular chambers formed of mud, which have been 
smoothed and polished like waxed floors by the 
feet of the occupants. Around the outer border 
of each polished floor is dry grass used for Mrs. 
Beaver's nursery, and here the young beavers sleep 
and play. 

From the outside these beaver huts resemble Es- 
quimaux snow-houses, being almost circular in 
form, and domed. The walls are quite thick enough 
to keep out the cold, but with all the beaver's in- 
genuity, he is helpless against trappers. Summer 
and winter they are hunted, until now they are 
fast becoming extinct. How few people seem fully 
to realise and care what is being done to wild an- 
imals! They do not seem to know that it is a 
crime to take the life of a being unnecessarily. Only 
human life is sacred to them ! To realize the won- 
derful work of beavers, and then to act as we do 
toward them is unworthy of our civilisation. 

An interesting cousin of the beaver, the musquash 
or muskrat, and called by the Indians the beaver's 
"little brother," is also a house-builder and engi- 



160 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

neer of no mean abilities. He is at home through- 
out the greater part of North America, and, like 
the beaver, frequents the regions of slowly flowing 
streams and large, reed-bordered ponds. Here he 
mingles in groups of his own kin, and together they 
build houses, work and play, dive and swim, with 
almost as much skill as their big beaver brothers. 

The muskrat is a skilled engineer, and delights 
in tunnelling. His home consists of a large rounded 
chamber which is reached by a long burrow from the 
side of a stream. From his main living-room are 
oftentimes found a number of smaller chambers or 
galleries, and these are used to store food in the 
form of delicate roots and bits of bark. Some of 
the more ambitious muskrats build large houses on 
piles of mud which rise out of the water. These 
houses are usually made of heaps of dead grass and 
weeds which are cemented together with mud and 
clay; at other times they contain no mud or clay, 
and seem to be only piles of tender roots and swamp 
grasses to be used for food during the long, cold 
winters. 

From his physical appearance, the muskrat is 
well prepared to do his work: he is stoutly built, 
with a body about a foot in length, not including 
the tail; has small eyes, and tiny ears, partly cov- 
ered with fur. In the winter, as food gets scarce, 



ANIMAL ARCHITECTS 161 

he begins to eat even the walls of his house, and 
by the time his home is gone — spring has arrived! 

A most unusual family of skilled house-builders 
are the brush-tailed rat-kangaroos, or Jerboa kan- 
garoos of Australia and Tasmania. They are no 
larger than an ordinary rabbit, but they have cou- 
sins who are as large as a man. /These rat-kanga- 
roos have most interesting tails, covered with long 
hair which forms itself into a crest near the tip. 
Their homes are found among small grassy hills, 
where there are a few trees and bushes. They 
scratch out a small hole in the ground, near a tuft 
of tall grass, and so bend the grass as to form a 
complete roof to the house, which is rather poorly 
constructed, and whose chief interest lies in the 
unusual way the kangaroos have of carrying all 
the building materials, like tiny bundles of hay, held 
compactly in their tails. There is no other work- 
man among the animals that employs quite this 
method of transporting materials. 

The rat-kangaroos have a dainty little brown 
cousin that lives in Africa, and who is occasionally 
seen jumping around on the ground, underneath 
bushes, and near damp springs. He is very small, 
not over three inches in length, and is like a minia- 
ture kangaroo, except for his long tail. Like their 
great cousins — the kangaroos — Mrs. Jerboa often 



162 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

carries her babies on her back when she goes out 
to seek food. 

In the Great Sahara Desert, parched and dry, 
are found numerous cities of these little animals. 
With the exception of a few birds, reptiles, jackals 
and hyenas, they are the only inhabitants of this 
barren and desolate land. From the Arabs we 
learn that these little animals have extensive and 
intricate burrows, consisting of innumerable pas- 
sages tunnelled out in the hard, dry soil. And 
these tunnels are the result of combined labour on 
the part of the entire community. The least alarm 
causes them to scuffle away into their underground 
homes. 

One of the larger species of Central Asia em- 
ploys a stratagem that is remarkable. Like their 
cousins of Africa, they live in a great underground 
city which is a perfect network of burrows which 
end in a large central chamber. From this cham- 
ber a long winding tunnel terminates very near the 
surface of the ground, and it is a long distance 
from the other burrows. No sign of its existence 
appears from above the surface of the earth, but 
if an enemy invades the burrow, away the jerboas 
rush for this secret exit and break through to the 
surface out of reach of the trouble, and escape. 

These African jerboas are exceedingly odd in 



ANIMAL ARCHITECTS 163 

appearance, and they are two-legged in their habits 
of walk, and never go on all-fours. They walk by 
placing one hind foot alternately before the other ; 
and they run in the same way. They can leap an 
extraordinary distance. 

Frogs and toads, as a class, are not so skilled in 
house-building as some of their higher relations, 
but there is one of their number — the Hyla faber 
— that is remarkably gifted in building mud houses. 
He lives in Brazil, and the natives call him the 
ferreiro, or smith, and he is indeed the master- 
builder of his family. Mrs. Hyla is really the gift- 
ed member of the tribe, and it is during the breed- 
ing season that she diligently dives underneath the 
water, digs up handfuls of mud, and builds on the 
bottom a small circular wall, which encloses a space 
about ten to fourteen inches in diameter. This 
wall is continued until it reaches about four inches 
above the surface of the water. It looks not unlike 
a small volcano, and the inside is skilfully smoothed. 
This has been done by Mrs. Frog's artistic hands. 
When the house is entirely completed, Mrs. Frog 
lays a great number of eggs, and here they are 
quite safe from enemies both as eggs and baby tad- 
poles. 

Mr. Frog seems little concerned in the building 
of the home, but he does take pleasure in croaking 



164 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

for Mrs. Frog while she works. Perhaps this is 
to her heart genuine music, and his faithful atten- 
tion to their children makes up for his love of idle- 
ness! 

Perhaps the strangest animal engineer in the 
world is found in Madagascar and Australia. It is 
the duckbill or duckmole, and is scientifically 
known as the Ornithorhynchus paradoxus. The 
natives of Australia call it by several names : Mal- 
langong, Tambreet, and not a few call it, Toliun- 
buck. 

This odd little aquatic engineer digs long tun- 
nels of great intricacy in the bands of lazy rivers, 
and because of its paradoxical nature and appear- 
ance has caused many strange stories to originate 
about its habits and methods of propagation. It 
has the beak of a duck and waddles not unlike this 
bird, but, like other mammals, it gives birth to its 
young, and does not lay eggs, as is so often claimed 
for it. When swimming it looks like a bunch of 
floating weeds or grass. 

Its home is always on the banks of a stream, and 
is always provided with two entrances: one below 
the surface of the water, and the other above. This 
insures escape in case of enemies. The main tun- 
nel or road to the home is sometimes fifty feet in 
length, and no engineer could devise a more decep- 



ANIMAL ARCHITECTS 165 

tive approach; it winds up and down like a huge 
serpent, to the right, and to the left, and is so an- 
noyingly variable in its sinuous course that even 
the natives have great trouble in digging the duck- 
bill out of its nest. 

The nest is oval in form, and is well-carpeted 
with dry weeds and grass. Here the young reside 
on soft beds until they are large enough to care for 
themselves. There are from one to four in each 
nest. 

There are no greater architects in the universe 
than may be found among the coral-polypes. These 
interesting little animals of the deep have been 
much misunderstood, and have sometimes had the 
erroneous designation of "insect" bestowed upon 
them. The word "insect" has been applied in a 
very loose and general sense in other days; but 
naturalists and scientists should see to it that the 
use of this term be corrected in reference to these 
wonderful coral-architects, and that no informed 
person refer to them except as animals. Even 
poets have been guilty of propagating the most 
erroneous ideas about the nature and works of these 
sea-builders. Montgomery, in his Pelican Island, 
makes statements that are shocking to an intelli- 
gent thinker, and which no scientist can excuse 
on the ground of poetical license. "The poetry of 



166 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

this excellent author," says Dana, "is good, but the 
facts nearly all errors — if literature allows of such 
an incongruity." Think of coral-animals as being 
referred to as shapeless worms that "writhe and 
shrink their tortuous bodies to grotesque dimen- 
sions" I These deep-sea builders manufacture or se- 
crete from their own bodies the coral substance out 
of which the great reefs are built. It is a part of 
their life work and nature, as a flower produces 
its own colours and shapes; it is amusing to know 
that it has only been about one hundred and fifty 
years since it was discovered not to be a plant but 
an animal! Even Ovid states the popular belief 
of the classic period when he speaks of the coral 
as a seaweed "which existed in a soft state as long 
as it remained in the sea, but had the curious prop- 
erty of becoming hard on exposure to the air." 

These strange coral-producing animals of the 
deep demand two especially important conditions 
only under which they will thrive: namely, a cer- 
tain depth of water and a certain temperature. 
Thus it is seen that the warmth of the sea deter- 
mines the distribution of the corals ; the geography 
of these animals is defined by degrees of tempera- 
ture. Only in equatorial seas may reef-building 
corals be found ; and if we select the "Equator as a 
natural centre of the globe, and measure off a 



ANIMAL ARCHITECTS 167 

band of 1800 miles in breadth on each side of that 
line," we will find that it will include the chief coral 
regions of the earth. 

The work of the corals is most interesting. Small 
as are these tiny workmen, each and every one does 
his bit and, speck by speck, adds his minute con- 
tribution to the growing mass of coral until entire 
islands are surrounded by extensive reefs. Tahiti, 
for example, is surrounded by a barrier reef which 
is really an immense wall. The large barrier reef 
on the northeast coast of Australia extends in a con- 
tinuous line for 1,000 miles, and varies from 10 to 
90 miles in breadth. Some reefs are mere fringes 
which simply skirt the coast lands, and seem to be 
mere extensions of the beach. Still another variety 
of reef is known as the "atoll" or "lagoon" reef. 
This latter form is seen in circular rings of coral 
of various breadths which enclose a body of still 
water — the lagoon. There are many of these coral 
islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Keeling 
or Cocos Atoll, of the Indian Ocean, is 9% miles 
in its greatest width; Bow Island is 30 miles in 
length, and 6 miles wide; while in the Maldive 
Archipelago one island measures 88 geographical 
miles in length, and in some places is 20 miles wide. 
When one beholds a large coral ring, covered with 
rich soil and tropical vegetation, and "protecting a 



168 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

quiet lake-haven from the restless ocean without, it 
is little to be wondered at that the earlier voyagers 
recorded their surprise that the apparently insigni- 
ficant architects of such an erection are able to 
withstand the force of the waves and to preserve 
their works among the continual attacks of the 
sea." As Pyrard de Laval truly said, "It is a 
marvel to see each of these atollons surrounded 
on all sides by a great bank of stone — walls such as 
no human hands could build on the space of earth 
allotted to them. . . . Being in the middle of an 
atollon, you see all around you this great stone 
bank, which surrounds and protects the island from 
the waves ; but it is a formidable attempt, even for 
the boldest, to approach the bank and watch the 
waves roll in, and break with fury upon the shore." 
As to the explanation of the modes of formation 
of these coral-reefs, the scientists have long been 
propounding theories which are sometimes amusing. 
Strangely enough they have nearly all explained 
that coral-polypes aggregate themselves in the 
forms of atolls and barrier-reefs by a mysterious 
"instinct," mediocrity's only term for screening its 
ignorance, and which is also given as the cause for 
their secreting lime. Flinders says that they form 
a great protecting reef in order that they may be 
protected by its shelter, and that the leeward as- 



ANIMAL ARCHITECTS 169 

pect of the reef forms a nursery for their infant 
colonies. 

Thus we see that these same scientists are ac- 
crediting these little architects with the possession 
of a great intelligence, and they are thought to co- 
operate together in a manner expressive of the 
greatest degree of efficiency and brotherly feeling. 
Each of these scientists gives a theory that leaves 
untouched the essential question of the causes for 
coral-reefs assuming their various shapes; and it 
is reasonable to believe that they work according 
to a divine wisdom and plan, and that mankind 
does not yet understand their strange ways, which 
give us a higher conception of the universe than 
that held by the ancients. Science has come to the 
point where it must recognise the perfect unity of 
all life, and that our fellow-architects, engineers, 
and house-builders in the animal world also fill an 
important place in Nature's great scheme. 



XI 

FOOD CONSERVERS 

"He prayeth well who loveth well 
Both man and bird and beast. 
He prayeth best who loveth best 
All things both great and small; 
For the dear God who loveth us, 
He made and loveth all." 

— Coleridge. 

IT can almost be said that there is no industry 
or profession of the human world that is not 
carried on with equal skill in the animal world. 
This is especially true of merchandising and store- 
keeping; animals, however, have different methods 
of merchandising than men, although these meth- 
ods are none the less real. They give and take 
instead of buy and sell and have co-operative shops 
which they operate with great success. They unite 
for a desired end, and demonstrate their ability to 
work together in a common enterprise in a way 
that might teach man a good lesson. 

Food and shelter are the first needs of animals. 

170 



FOOD CONSERVERS 171 

In order to obtain these, they group themselves into 
foraging parties in the most ingenious manner. 
Like mankind, they sometimes co-operate for dis- 
honest ends; they form "trusts" and organise into 
gangs for purposes of mutual aid. 

Deer, monkeys, rabbits, foxes, and numerous oth- 
ers conduct their dining-rooms on a co-operative 
principle. Some watch and wait while others dine. 
The same is true where they go to watering places 
to drink and bathe. 

Perhaps the most unique and clever food con- 
server is the American polecat. He not only pro- 
vides for himself, but prepares a larder for his. 
young, so that they will have plenty of food. The 
nursery is usually comfortably embedded in a cave, 
and is lined with soft, dry grass. Adjoining this 
nursery is a larder, which often contains from ten 
to fifty large frogs and toads, all alive, but so 
dexterously bitten through the brain as to make 
them incapable of escaping. Mr. and Mrs. Pole- 
cat can then visit or hunt as they please, so long 
as their children have plenty of fresh meat at 
home! 

Another interesting food conserver is the chip- 
ping squirrel, or chipmunk, so named because his 
cry sounds like the chirp of little chickens. His 
method of dress is most unusual; he is brownish 



172 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

grey in colour, with five stripes of black and two 
of pale yellow running along the back of his coat; 
the throat and lower part of his body is snowy white. 
These colours occasionally vary, when the grey and 
yellow are superseded by black. 

His home is underground, usually under an old 
wall, near a rock fence, or under a tree; his bur- 
row is so long and winding that he can easily es- 
cape almost any enemy, except the weasel, which 
is not easily outwitted. His nursery and living- 
room is quite pretentious, but his lateral storeroom 
is a marvel! He is a miser indeed, and stores up 
every acorn and nut he can find, even many times 
more than he can ever eat. His variety of food 
is almost unending — he loves buckwheat, beaked 
nuts, pecans, various kinds of grass seeds, and In- 
dian corn. In carrying food to his home he first 
fills his pouches to overflowing and then takes an- 
other nut in his mouth; he thus reminds the clas- 
sical reader of Alcmaeon in the treasury of Croesus. 

The hedgehog is a regular Solomon in her meth- 
ods of collecting fruit. Plutarch had a very high 
opinion of her. He says that when grapes are ripe, 
the mother hedgehog goes under the vines and 
shakes them until some of the grapes fall ; she then 
literally rolls over them until many are attached 
to her spines, and marches back to her babies in 




American Museum of Natural History, Xciv I 



THE SKUNK MOTHER TRIES TO KEEP ON HAND A GOOD SUPPLY OF SUCH 
DELICACIES AS FROGS AND TOADS, SO THAT HER YOUNG MAY NEVER GO 

HUNGRY. 






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FOOD CONSERVERS 173 

the cave. "One day," says Plutarch, "when we 
were all together, we had the chance of seeing this 
with our own eyes — it looked as if a bunch of 
grapes was shuffling along the ground, so thickly 
covered was the animal with its booty.' ' 

Alpine mice not only form comfortable winter 
homes in the earth, but combine into small winter 
colonies, each colony numbering about ten to twelve 
inhabitants, all of whom are under the direction of 
a leader. Thus organised, they proceed to lay up 
provisions for the winter. They use their mouths 
as scythes and their paws as rotary machines. Sure- 
ly their wisdom and foresight call forth our great- 
est admiration. The jerboas or jumping mice are 
not only skilled athletes in the art of jumping, but 
they are gifted food conservers and producers as 
well. They lay up complete storehouses of food, 
which they do not consume altogether as their ap- 
petite may direct ; but conserve it carefully for the 
times when nothing can be obtained from the fields. 
Then, and then only, do they open the closed mag- 
azines. Such acts of intelligence cannot be re- 
corded under the head of "instinct"! They dem- 
onstrate the ability to plan for the future, and 
meet all emergencies. 

Certain food hoarders and robbers, like the vole, 
are so very greedy and become such misers that 



174 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

they often threaten total destruction to large areas 
of grain. They were so plentiful in the classic 
land of Thessaly, the vale of Tempe, and the Land 
of Olympus that the old Greeks established what 
they called an Apollo Smintheus, the Mouse-de- 
stroying God. In the early spring, according to 
Professor Loeffler, who has made a special study 
of their invasions, they begin to come down from 
their homes in the hills to the cultivated fields. They 
seem to follow regular roads, and often travel along 
the railroad embankment. They travel very slowly, 
and when at home live somewhat on the order of 
prairie dogs, that is, in underground dwellings with 
numerous winding passages and tunnels. 

These wise little food conservers are nocturnal 
in habit, and are rarely seen except by careful ob- 
servers. When they once determine to rob a field, 
they do it with amazing rapidity and completeness. 
In a single night hordes of these workers go into 
a cornfield and by daylight not a stalk of corn re- 
mains. The field is as empty as if a cyclone had 
struck it. They work with great system, and while 
a part of their number cut the stalks down, others 
cut it up into movable sizes, while still others su- 
perintend its systematic removal. Storehouses are 
usually provided before the grain is even cut. They 
make long voyages throughout a country, storing 



FOOD CONSERVERS 175 

away tons of grain and food in these various gran- 
aries. To these they come for supplies whenever 
necessary. All poverty-stricken voles are also fed 
from these storehouses, since it is the product of the 
community as a whole. Aristotle wrote at length 
about their wise and destructive ways. 

Not the least ingenious of food conservers are 
the hamsters, members of the great rodent family. 
They have made their dwellings most comfortable 
and even luxurious in arrangement and furnish- 
ings. Like wealthy farmers, they are not satisfied 
with comfortable dwellings only, but they too must 
have spacious barns adjoining their homes. Their 
home, or burrow proper, consists of two openings: 
one, which is used as an entrance, and which sinks 
vertically into the ground ; the other, which is used 
as an exit, with a winding slope. The central room 
is beautifully carpeted with straw, moss, and dry 
leaves, which makes it a very pleasant living-room 
and bedroom. A third small winding tunnel leads 
from this room to the barns and storehouse. Thus, 
Mr. and Mrs. Hamster and the children have no 
need to go forth in the cold and wet weather to 
seek food — they can remain at home perfectly pro- 
tected and well-fed. They are very liberal, and in 
case of need or poverty, will always share their 
food with their neighbours. 



176 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

I once found the nest of a harvest mouse, which 
was woven of plaited blades of straw of the oats 
and wheat. It was perfectly round, with the aper- 
ture so ingeniously closed that I could scarcely tell 
to what part of the nest it belonged. It was as 
round as a marble and would actually roll when 
placed on a table, although within its walls were 
six tiny mice, naked and blind. As they increased 
in size day by day, the elastic wall of their small 
home expanded, and thus served their need until 
such time as they were old enough to live inde- 
pendent of this specially provided shelter. 

There is a larger animal, known as a "rat-hare" 
or the harvest rat, which gathers piles of hay for 
winter use, sometimes to the height of six or eight 
feet in diameter. They begin harvesting in the 
early part of August, and after having cut the grass, 
they carefully spread it out to dry before placing 
it in their barns. These barns are usually located 
in holes or crevices of mountains. They are found 
in immense numbers in the Altai Mountains. 

The California woodrat is not only a food hoarder 
but a notable thief and robber. A nest was found 
that was a veritable tool chest and pawn shop! It 
contained fourteen knives, three forks, six small 
spoons, one large soup spoon, twenty-seven large 
nails, hundreds of small tacks, two butcher knives, 



FOOD CONSERVERS 177 

three pairs of eye-glasses, one purse, one string 
of beads, one rubber ball, two small cakes of soap, 
one string of red peppers, several boxes of matches, 
with numerous small buttons, needles, and pins. 
Apparently these woodrats are as ambitious for un- 
necessary and useless possessions as is man himself. 
Their big storeroom did, however, contain a larder 
in which they had some of their favourite food, such 
as seeds and nuts. 

Some animals have learned not only to acquire, 
but also to defend and protect, all their property. 
We see in the human world how strong is the im- 
pulse to collect, and children will invariably col- 
lect anything from pebbles to peach-pits, if they 
see other children doing the same thing. 

Most animals that do not hoard are those that 
forage for food, or fish, and rarely have perma- 
nent homes. The orang-outangs, for example, are 
regular gipsies, and go from place to place wher- 
ever food is plentiful. They take life easy, and 
sometimes during their journeys select a suitable 
spot near the seashore and have a real picnic. A 
scout has already discovered the right spot for get- 
ting big oysters, of which they are exceedingly 
fond, and when they have assembled, certain ones 
proceed to dig up the oysters, which they hand to 
others on the shore and they, in turn, place them 



178 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

on big stones, and proceed to open them for the 
feast. If one of the fishermen-monkeys discovers an 
oyster open, he will not insert his hand to remove 
the meat until first placing a stone between the 
valves. This assures him protection against the 
closing of the oyster. In most cases, they open 
the oysters by first placing them on stones and then 
using another stone as a hammer. These facts 
are vouched for by no less authorities than Gamelli 
Carreri, Dampier, and Wafer. 

It is only a matter of time until many animals 
will understand the use of man-made tools. Some 
have already learned to use such tools as they make 
and shape for themselves. Monkeys and apes are 
already gifted in this art. Of course, under do- 
mestication, they use knives, forks, spoons, and 
dishes not so much from intelligence as from imi- 
tation. This, however, might be said of many hu- 
man beings. I have seen an immense chimpanzee 
sit in a chair, set his own dinner table, use his knife 
and fork correctly when eating, and take great de- 
light in the use of his napkin, which he always care- 
fully refolded when his meal was over. 

The human-like qualities of apes and monkeys, 
however, need scarcely be told. They are so very 
similar to man in most ways that there are few 
things they cannot do. Aelian tells of an ape which 



FOOD CONSERVERS 179 

learned to drive horses skilfully. He knew just 
when and how to use the whip, how much slack to 
allow in the reins, and when to tighten them ! They 
greatly resent any intrusion on their hunting- 
grounds, and make use of sticks and clubs to pro- 
tect them. The chief is always armed with a club, 
and is thoroughly skilled in the use of it. It some- 
times happens that an elephant will come to the 
same tree to seek food that apes frequent, and al- 
though they have no enmity towards each other, 
they like the same kind of food. As soon as the 
ape sees the elephant reaching his trunk among the 
branches, he immediately slips near the elephant, 
and when an opportunity presents itself, he whacks 
him over the trunk with his club! The infuriated 
elephant runs away in terror! 

A story is told of a party of foraging apes who 
went into a cornfield with the purpose of robbing 
it, and discovered two men. They immediately 
rushed upon them and attempted to poke their eyes 
out with sticks and would have succeeded but for 
the intervention of two other men who chanced to 
be near. The extreme cleverness of apes in ap- 
plying their reason and judgment is shown in Vos- 
maer's account of the female orang-outang, who 
tried to open the padlock of her chain with a small 
stick. She had seen her master open it with a 



180 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

key, and she exactly imitated the motion of his 
hands in the attempt- 
Man shows a disposition to deny animals all 
traits and characteristics which are similar to his 
own. This reminds us of a remark that Cardinal 
Newman once made that men know less of animals 
than they do of angels. Why should we show such 
foolish pride and delusion, and try to baffle one of 
God's great facts? When men attempt to extin- 
guish the idea of animal intelligence and sentiment 
by referring to it as instinct, we are reminded of 
the desert ostrich, which buries its head in the sand 
and thinks it cannot be seen. We should proudly 
acknowledge the wonderful human-like methods of 
these food conservers of the animal world, and rec- 
ognise in all this a guiding Providence who pro- 
vides for and protects all his creatures, be they 
great or small. 



XII 

TOURISTS AND SIGHT-SEERS 

"'Every night we must look, lest the down slope 
Between us and the woods turn suddenly 
To a grey onrush full of small green candles, 
The charging pack with eyes flaming for flesh. 
And well for us then if there's no more mist 
Than the white panting of the wolfish hunger." 

THE desire to travel and see the great world 
is by no means peculiar to the human race. 
It is found among animals to such a degree that 
groups of them will often leave their homes in one 
country and journey to another. These strange 
wanderlust habits are noticed even by the casual 
observer, and no special insight is required to see 
that these wise creatures have their annual tours 
excellently arranged and marked out. Their route 
is possibly as definitely arranged before starting, 
as is the route of a human traveller. They have 
their selected eating places arranged, know every 
danger spot and the enemies they are likely to en- 
counter. 

181 



182 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

The members of these co-operative tours take 
life tickets, and each tour lasts about one year. One 
of the most unusual instances of such co-operation 
is that of the lemmings of the Scandinavian coun- 
tries. These are animals of the mouse tribe, which 
live in the mountainous districts. They live upon 
roots and grasses. They breed very rapidly. At 
certain times they go from the centre of Norway 
to the east and west, crossing valley, hill, and river 
in great masses. Many are destroyed by birds and 
beasts of prey, but finally the survivors reach the 
Atlantic on the Gulf of Bothnia and, for some 
strange unknown reason, plunge in and die. Only 
enough remain from one season to another to propa- 
gate the species. It is an immense co-operative sui- 
cide society. 

Rivers and valleys are sometimes effectual bar- 
riers. On the plains of the Amazon great num- 
bers of animals are found on one side of the river 
only ; these have not been able to cross to the other. 
On the north side of the Rio Negro are two varie- 
ties of monkeys, the brachiurus conocion and the 
jacchus bicolor, which are unknown on the south 
side. Of course, water-loving animals, such as seals, 
whales, and porpoises are at home in the water and 
can swim for days without stopping. Quite a few 
animals can swim for a short distance, but com- 



TOURISTS AND SIGHT-SEERS 183 

paratively few for long distances. In the early days 
in North America it was not uncommon for buffalo 
to swim across the Mississippi River. Rats and 
squirrels often migrate in great numbers. It often- 
times happens that Arctic animals travel from one 
place to another on floating ice. In the South 
American waters it is a common sight to see float- 
ing islands covered with plants and trees upon which 
there are live animals; and while these animals are 
likely to perish, they are oftentimes carried safely 
to land. Eagles have often been instrumental in 
bringing new species of animals to islands where 
they had previously been unknown, their purpose 
being to provide food for their own young. Some 
of these animals would escape and henceforth be- 
come citizens of their new habitation. 

An interesting division of migrants is that of the 
casual travellers, like the men and women who al- 
ways remains at home except when special business 
calls them away. Sudden climatic changes, or the 
scarcity of food, often cause stay-at-home animals 
to make tours into new territories. As a good in- 
stance, I might cite the case of three wolves, which 
I saw entering Jackson Park in Chicago, during 
very severe weather when Lake Michigan was froz- 
en over. The morning papers stated that because 
of forest fires in Michigan, and the extreme cold, 



184 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

which not only made food scarce for the wild 
animals of Michigan, but froze the Lake, many 
of them had come across the ice into the great Chi- 
cago parks seeking food and shelter. 

The subject of animal travel is full of interesting 
and difficult problems, and not the least interest- 
ing nor the least difficult is the question of just how 
they find their way to and from various places. 
Many naturalists tell us that these animals are led 
by inherited instinct along the migration lines fol- 
lowed by their forefathers. But even if this were 
true, what made them originally follow such a 
course? 

Wild horses when travelling always have a lead- 
er as well as several sentinels for each herd. By 
some unknown code this leader makes known his 
wishes and directs the movements of the herd. No 
human army could have greater order or more per- 
fect obedience to commands; and under him there 
is absolute unity by means of which the carnivorous 
animals, such as the wolf, the jaguar, and the puma, 
are repelled. Wild deer invariably have a leader, 
and while we do not know how he obtains his posi- 
tion, nor how he directs his followers, we do know 
he is highly successful in his efforts. 

No act in the animal world bespeaks more intel- 
ligence than that of placing sentinels, especially 



TOURISTS AND SIGHT-SEERS 185 

during a journey. Horses show striking skill and 
ingenuity in the choosing and placing of their sen- 
tinels. Any one who has been fortunate enough 
to have seen them travelling in the forests of South 
America, where the wild horses are gregarious, and 
travel in herds of five hundred to a thousand, has 
noticed that sentinels are always stationed around 
the herd. These animals are not well prepared for 
fighting, and experience has taught them that their 
greatest safety is in flight, and so, when they graze 
or sleep, sentinels are always on the lookout for 
enemies. If a man approaches, the sentinel at first 
walks toward him, as if to make sure what the en- 
emy is, and what he desires, if the man goes nearer 
to the herd, the sentinel neighs in a most peculiar 
tone. Immediately the herd is aroused, and gallops 
away, not in confusion, but perfect order, as though 
its members were human soldiers. 

The same is true of the white-legged peccaries, 
so plentiful in Guiana. They congregate by the 
thousands, choose a leader whose position is always 
at the front, and travel for hundreds of miles 
through the great forests. If they come to a river, 
the leader halts, as if to make sure that all is well 
for crossing, then he plunges into the water and is 
followed by his immense army. The sureness of 
the leader would suggest that he has been over the 



186 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

same route many times before — perhaps this is why- 
he has been chosen! If an enemy appears, or any 
form of danger is approached, they carry on an 
immense amount of chattering and proceed only 
when they have talked it out. Any hunter that 
should be foolish enough to attack them, unless he 
were already up a tree, would be torn to pieces 
with their terrible teeth and tusks. They are as 
bloodthirsty as the wild boars of the Black Forest 
of Germany, and will sometimes actually tear down 
a tree up which an enemy has escaped, that they 
may kill him. 

The African apes have an interesting way of 
sending their sentinel to the top of an adjacent 
rock or tree, that he may look over the surrounding 
valleys and plantations before they go to plunder 
a garden or field. If he sees any danger, he utters 
a loud shriek, and the entire troop immediately runs 
away. The monkeys of Brazil post a guard while 
they sleep ; the same is true of the chamois and other 
species of wild antelope. 

A few years ago, many of the sheep in the north- 
ern part of Wales had become quite wild, and they 
usually grazed in parties of twelve to twenty, al- 
ways having a sentinel so stationed as to command 
a prominent view of the surrounding territory. If 
any animal or person came near, he would give a 



TOURISTS AND SIGHT-SEERS 187 

peculiar hiss or whistle, repeating it two or three 
times, at which the whole herd would scamper away 
to places of safety. 

One of the most striking facts about migration 
is its never-failing regularity and success. Most 
animals migrate at the recurrence of the breeding 
season. Of these, the great sea-turtle, which seeks 
the shallow water and deep sandy hills when ready 
to lay her eggs, is well known. Notwithstanding the 
great risks that practically all travelling animals 
assume, they are successful as a whole in their 
travels, and many return to bear testimony to a suc- 
cessful trip even across continents and sometimes 
the ocean. They migrate, for a variety of reasons. 
When it is not for a more desirable climate, nor 
more food, nor even better breeding grounds, we 
must either believe it is because of the natural de- 
sire to travel, or frankly admit that we do not 
understand it. 

The Icelandic mice have probably the most cu- 
rious methods of travelling of all migratory animals. 
Dr. Henderson, an authority on Iceland, not only 
verifies the fact himself, but gives the names of 
many prominent investigators who have seen the 
mice crossing small rivers and streams on thin 
pieces of dry board, dragging them to the water, 
launching them, and then going aboard their little 



188 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

rafts. They then turn their heads to the centre, and 
their tails, which hang in the water, are used as 
paddles and rudders until they reach the destined 
shore. 

Among travellers none are more famed than the 
camels. In their sphere and use they are supreme, 
and Nature has prepared them especially for trav- 
elling on the dry, hot, and barren deserts. They 
are truly the "ships of the desert" for they travel on 
a sea of sand, and their pad-like feet, so poorly 
adapted for travel on moist soil, is admirably suit- 
ed to the desert sands. They are capable of trav- 
elling many days without food or water, and are 
used extensively in the desert regions of the East 
not only as beasts of burden but for their milk, 
which is an important article of diet in those coun- 
tries where the camel is at home. 

Animals that do not migrate, especially those 
living in cold climates, change their clothing at reg- 
ular intervals. Their hair or fur increases in thick- 
ness in winter. If we compare the Indian and 
African elephants of to-day, whose delicate thin 
hair is scarcely noticeable, with the great extinct 
mammoth, which had an enormous amount of wool- 
ly fur, we readily see the great difference in their 
clothing. Yet these animals are members of the 
same great family. The same difference may be 



TOURISTS AND SIGHT-SEERS 189 

noted with horses : the Arabian horse, for example, 
has short, glistening fur, while those of Iceland and 
Norway have very thick fur; the same is true of 
Northern and Southern sheep. Animals which live 
in temperate regions, put on much thicker coats 
in winter, and shed them as summer approaches. 

The love of their original homes is one of the 
most striking features of certain animal travellers. 
The fierce struggle for existence and the territory 
required for an animal's home largely determine 
the amount of effort they make to seize and hold 
certain possessions. A pair of wildcats, for ex- 
ample, require a comparatively small hunting 
ground. But this they will defend against inva- 
sion even to the point of death. There are many 
more evidences showing the animals' love of home, 
and that they also know the meaning of home- 
sickness. 

Not a few animals have learned definitely to lay 
out and obtain recognition for the boundaries of 
their respective ranging-grounds. This is amply 
proven by their respect and recognition of rights of 
way. Animals of certain farms seem to know the 
exact boundaries of their grazing lands and pas- 
tures, and to teach this knowledge to their young. 
In addition they often police their lands and pas- 
tures against intruders. Woe unto any traveller 



190 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

found on the wrong highway! It is not uncom- 
mon for the transgressor to be pushed from a right 
of way to the rocks below. More than once a 
court's decision regarding disputable territory has 
been based on the sheep's recognition of boundary; 
those sheep slain in battle or otherwise injured 
while trying to invade the questionable territory 
have been paid for by the owner of the transgres- 
sing sheep. 

It is easy to understand how sheep can recognise 
their rights of way, but somewhat difficult to ac- 
count for their knowledge of boundaries. Sheep 
and goats have for ages been the greatest moun- 
tain-path and road-makers. Whether or not they 
have engineers, we are not sure, but they seem to 
select the shortest, easiest, and best route across 
the trackless hills, and never seem to change the 
way. In these localities, the sheep are almost in 
a primitive condition, and "not the least interest- 
ing feature of their conduct in this relapse to the 
wild life is that, in spite of the highly artificial con- 
dition in which they live to-day, they retain the 
primitive instincts of their race." 

That this "peremptory and path-keeping" in- 
stinct is shown by the habits of the musk-ox, is 
clear. He is as much akin to the sheep as to cat- 
tle, and in habits more like those of the great pre- 



TOURISTS AND SIGHT-SEERS 191 

historic sheep as we imagine these to have been. 
The musk-ox naturally assembles in large flocks, 
and is migratory, just as the domesticated flocks of 
Spain are, and those of Thrace and the Caspian 
steppe. These flocks always return from the bar- 
ren lands in the far north by the same road, and 
cross rivers by the same fords. Nothing but too 
persistent slaughter at these points by the enemies 
who beset them, induces them to desert their an- 
cient highways. Pictures and anecdotes of the mi- 
grations of these animals, and of the bison in former 
days, represent them as moving on a broad front 
across the prairie or tundra. The examples of all 
moving multitudes suggest that this was not their 
usual formation on the march, and their roads prove 
that they moved on a narrow front or in file. On 
the North American prairie, though the bison are 
extinct, their great roads still remain as evidence 
of their former habits. These trails are paths worn 
on the prairie, nearly all running due north and 
south (the line of the old migration of the herds), 
like gigantic rabbit tracks. They are hard, the 
grass on them is green and short, and, if followed, 
they generally lead near water, to which a diverging 
track runs from the highway. 

How interesting must have been the life on this 
great animal highway, before the Indian made the 



192 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

deadly arrow to destroy these nature-loving travel- 
lers ! There is no doubt but that, in their own way, 
these animals felt all the emotions known to a 
human traveller; that they enjoyed the flowery 
road, rested and played when weary, looked for- 
ward with joy to their favourite watering and bath- 
ing places, and recognised old watering places that 
they had visited for years. 

The great roads and highways made by gramin- 
ivorous animals, from those which the hippopotamus 
cuts through the mammoth canes and reeds of the 
African streams, to the smaller rabbit highways of 
England and America, all tell their own story of 
how these animals live and travel. The principal 
roads of rabbits over hills are as permanent as 
sheep and buffalo roads. These roads, however, 
should not be confused with the little trails that 
lead to their play and feeding grounds. 

My friend and fellow-naturalist, Ralph Stuart 
Murray, in writing to me from Quebec, says: "In 
speaking of animal road builders, I might say that 
the rabbit or hare of the north woods deserves much 
attention, for greatly interesting are his highways. 
The life of the north woods brings one constantly 
in touch with these roads, which, after generations 
upon generations of constant use, are worn deep 
and smooth into the moose grass and muskeg 



TOURISTS AND SIGHT-SEERS 193 

through which they run. At places, several dis- 
tinct paths intersect, and it is curious to note that 
while these roads wind in and out underneath the 
low hanging evergreens, the 'cross-roads' will in- 
variably be located in a clear open space, often on 
the top of some small hillock. 

"The great age of these roads is very evident 
when compared with the newer, shallower paths of 
more recent years. So deep are the old ones, in 
fact, that the quiet watcher in the woods will oc- 
casionally see two large, upright ears— unmistak- 
ably those of a rabbit, seemingly sticking out of a 
hole in the ground — yet moving at a rapid pace, 
and all the while no rabbit in view. For all the 
world these vertical ears belonging to an unseen 
owner resemble in use and appearance the periscope 
of a submarine — the difference being that the rab- 
bit uses his 'periscopes' for hearing, in order to 
locate and avoid his foe, the submarine its peri- 
scope to locate and attack its enemy." 

The sheep terraces, which are so common on the 
sides of hills, though made by sheep, are not roads, 
but feeding grounds. Sheep, when walking on a 
hillside, invariably graze on the upper side, as they 
cannot reach the lower grass. Therefore they walk 
backwards and forwards on the slope, just as a 
reaping machine is driven over a hillside wheat- 



1.94 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

field. As the sheep takes a "neck's length" each 
time, the little ridges or roads correspond exactly 
with the measurements of the sheep's neck. 

There are as many kinds of roads and terminals 
in the animal world as there are in the human, and 
lest our pride make us forget, we should remember 
that even the Panama Canal is dug according to 
the plan of a crawfish's canal, such as may be seen 
near any muddy stream. It is strange that no 
animal has learned to build elevated roads, though 
animals that live in trees, like flying squirrels, mon- 
keys, and flying foxes, are very skilled in going 
from one tree to another. They have regular aerial 
highways, and some of the tree frogs are veritable 
wonders in the accuracy of their leaps from tree 
to tree. Even more skilled than these are the aga- 
mid lizards of India, whose chief means of travel is 
a folding parachute, which at a moment's notice can 
be erected and carry to another tree its lucky pos- 
sessor. In Borneo is an aviator tree-snake which 
is able to so spread his ribs and inflate his body 
that he can actually sail from branch to branch 
in the tree-tops. 

There are night travellers as well as day trav- 
ellers; in fact, there are more animals that roam 
around in a great forest at night than in the day- 
time. They sleep during the day, when the day 



TOURISTS AND SIGHT-SEERS 195 

animals are roaming about, and go forth to roam 
when it is night. It is then they seek for prey, and 
are much feared by day animals. They see well 
in the dark, and travel so lightly that their foot- 
steps cannot be heard. 

On the Island of Java are found a family of 
strange, dwarfish little beings, which are called by 
the natives malmags, or hobgoblins. And they are 
well named, for they look like creatures of a dis- 
torted imagination more than real, living animals. 
They travel only at night, and so superstitious are 
the natives of their evil influence that if one of 
these uncanny little creatures appears near their 
rice fields, the plantation is immediately abandoned. 
However, these small creatures are no larger than 
squirrels, and are perfectly harmless. They are 
very rare even in their native lands — the Oriental 
Archipelago and the Philippine Islands. They rear 
their young in the hollow roots of bamboo trees, 
and to disturb their nests means to incur the evil 
of all the land. 

Night animals do not go forth to travel and seek 
prey until the night is far advanced, and their prey 
is soundly sleeping. They seem to know the exact 
time of the night, as if they had watches or clocks, 
and they usually go forth to hunt about midnight 
and return to their homes about four o'clock. Only 



196 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

in cases of extreme hunger do they vary from this 
rule. 

How marvellously skilled are they in finding 
their way ! They pass through a crowded forest as 
though it were daytime, and strangely enough know 
just how to return to their lairs. This special sense 
or gift is not possessed by man ; he must have marks 
and signs to return to a definite place. 

These night-travellers number among their lot 
bats, flying squirrels, leopards, and prowling snakes. 

Bats are not only the most interesting of the 
night-travellers, but by far the most curious and 
wonderful animals in the world. They are hideous- 
ly ugly, reminding one more of a miniature, closed- 
up umbrella than an animal! They are coarse, 
awkward, when not in flight, and repellent; yet 
they have such highly developed senses that they 
have no rivals in the animal world. They excel most 
birds in flight, are able to make long nightly jour- 
neys, in which they use their wings not only for 
flight, but as air-bags in which they catch all kinds 
of flying insects. Their sense of touch as we know 
it is really a combination of touch, sight, and hear- 
ing. 

A bat is a paradox par excellence ! Nature seems 
to have started to make a little bear or fox, and 
suddenly forgot how and changed it into a winged 



TOURISTS AND SIGHT-SEERS 197 

freak, with tail, claws, fur, sharp teeth, small ears 
that stand up, and tiny, half-buried eyes. Its queer 
angular-edged wings look like an umbrella, with 
the cloth stretched over steel ribs; but in the case 
of the bat, this framework is made of delicate bones 
which are covered with a thin skin. The skin con- 
tains numerous little sense organs dotted over its 
surface, which give the bat his strange power. 

Bats look more like mice than they do like birds, 
and they are sometimes called flittermice. But they 
are mammals, and the young are fed with milk by 
the mother, just as a cow feeds her calf. There is 
no danger that a bat will ever fly against you in 
the dark; for they can avoid all mishap even when 
their eyes are put out. They have special sense 
organs that tell them when they are nearing an 
object, and can fly at headlong speed with the ac- 
curacy of a rifle bullet directly into a small open- 
ing. This power is all due to the mysterious sense 
located in their wings and ears, which causes even 
man to consider his senses weak in comparison. 

Bats are sociable creatures and huddle together 
and sleep in vast numbers during the day, but when 
night comes on they come forth for their nocturnal 
travels and sport by the millions. I have seen them 
leaving caves just at dusk in such numbers as to 
look like one immense volume of smoke, twenty to 



198 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

thirty feet wide, and lasting for more than five min- 
utes. Mrs. Bat often takes her babies with her on 
these nightly travels. I found one with two young 
clinging to her breast. How they must enjoy these 
lovely trips! 

There are many kinds and varieties of bats, rang- 
ing in size from the flying foxes of the tropical 
world, with wings five feet in length, to the wood 
bat of North America, which is not over six inches 
long. These interesting friends of man are his 
greatest scavengers of the air. They are doing 
much to check the mosquitoes throughout the re- 
gions of the world, and in more civilized communi- 
ties man makes shelters for them, that they may 
eradicate mosquitoes. 



XIII 

ANIMAL SCAVENGERS AND CRIMINALS 

"A warning from these pages take, 

And know this truth sublime — 
Each creature is a criminal 



NO more remarkable creatures exist in the ani- 
mal world than those that play the role of Na- 
ture's scavengers and criminals. They are as numer- 
ous and varied in their methods of working as they 
are interesting. The only things they have in com- 
mon are their profession and their appetites. As in- 
dividuals they are ugly, unattractive and apparent- 
ly void of personality and charm. Nevertheless, 
they have an important part to play in the scheme 
of things. 

One of the most noted of these scavengers is the 
jackal — the Bohemian of the desert — whose terri- 
tory extends from the Gulf of Persia to the Strait 
of Gibraltar. He is equally at home in Arabia, 
Persia, Babylonia, Syria, Egypt, and the entire 
North Coast of Africa, and no country from Bar- 

199 



200 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

bary to the Cape of Good Hope is ever out of reach 
of his ghostly and uncouth howls. He travels only 
by night, and very rapidly. 

When suffering with extreme hunger, he will 
attack man, but this he will do only in very rare 
cases. As he lives entirely upon dead animals, he 
is more of a thief and glutton than a robber and 
murderer. He depends mostly upon flight and 
darkness for his protection, and rarely ventures a 
direct attack. With all his unlikable habits he is 
truly valuable as an agent of public salubrity, and 
an important officer of the desert "commission of 
highways." 

These public scavengers, while especially fond 
of carcasses and putrid flesh, are not averse to a 
little fresh meat occasionally. The jackal is truly 
the follower or purveyor for the lion, and oftentimes 
they work together. Jackals will gather in large 
numbers near a lion's den and howl and scream 
until the lions come forth to disperse them. As 
soon as a lion appears they stop their noise, but 
when he is out of sight, they immediately begin 
again. This is done because game is near, and the 
wise jackals wish the lion to kill the game. When 
this is done, and the lions have eaten all except the 
bones, the jackals have their small feast of scraps. 

These weird night prowlers have ways all their 



ANIMAL SCAVENGERS 201 

own, as any one who has spent a night in a trop- 
ical desert can attest. Imagine yourself on the 
Syrian plains between Bagdad and Damascus; a 
small white tent, and a starry sky : the silence is ap- 
palling, and you are just about to have your first 
sleep in the desert. Away, away from the distance 
comes a mournful, ghostly cry. Suddenly it ceases 
and like myriads of echoes it is repeated in hideous 
intensity — a babel of cries weird beyond descrip- 
tion — so fierce and screeching as to be almost blood- 
curdling. It seems to come from all directions and 
distance out of measure ! Vibrating over the sands 
and through the rocks, filling the immense void, cry- 
ing out as it were for the sphinx, a veritable de pro- 
fundis of the wastes. The vultures, who hold the 
fort during the day have given way to the night 
shift, the jackals. These come from all directions; 
from the caves in the earth, from among the rocks, 
from here, there, and from everywhere to take up 
their hygienic services where it has been left off by 
the day scavengers. 

If you were near an oasis in the desert at the close 
of day, you would suddenly hear from the hot, bar- 
ren sands a deep and peculiar sound. It swells 
and grows as an approaching wind, growing louder 
and louder as it comes nearer. Suddenly by the 
light of the camp fire, you see myriads of horrid 



202 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

green eyes, like ghost torches in a graveyard, and 
hear gnashing teeth, greedy in anticipation of the 
garbage you have thrown away. 

These hyena hordes are frightfully ugly, but 
rarely dangerous to man. They visit every oasis 
settlement in immense numbers, howling, yelping, 
and fighting for any bit of offal they may find. 
Not a particle of garbage remains. At the first 
sign of dawn, they disappear like rats from a burn- 
ing building, and seek their caves to digest their 
ignoble banquets. 

No human street-cleaner could ever excel their 
work. No matter how large the garbage pile, no 
matter how many dead dogs, cats, and donkeys in 
a village street, no matter how unspeakable the 
offal, it all vanishes as completely as though it had 
been burned. Not a piece of bone, not a single 
chicken feather remains. The natives have no fear 
of the hyena; a small child armed with a stick can 
put to flight a dozen of them. They are the lowest 
of cowards, and will flee from their own shadows. 

In spite of their valuable services, mankind hates 
the hyenas. This is probably because of their ab- 
solute cowardice, for they will never attack a liv- 
ing creature unless it is weak from illness. Some- 
times they steal a baby, never killing it outright, but 
carrying it away to their dens to starve it to death 



ANIMAL SCAVENGERS 203 

before mutilating its body. If the courage of this 
beast equalled his strength, he would be the despot 
of the desert. But he is like his fellow workman, 
the jackal, cowardly to the last degree. 

Neither of them ever attempts to put an enemy 
to flight by legitimate means. They resort to fak- 
ery: one howls, and the other wrinkles his face in 
great anger. The jackal's greatest asset and pro- 
tection, when he meets with an enemy, is bluff . He 
raises his ugly mane, lifts his ungainly shoulders 
and assumes the look of a Jason, while in reality 
he is as harmless as a mouse, and the smallest child 
could drive him away with a twig. His bravery 
is all pose — a make-believe game — which he plays 
over and over again with every one he meets. 

A noted American scavenger is the peccary, a 
species of wild hog, whose home ranges from Texas 
to the Pampas of South America, He is a devourer 
of creatures more obnoxious than himself. He 
moves with great rapidity, is always on the alert, 
and stops at nothing from mountains to a flow- 
ing river. When he attacks an enemy he makes 
short work of him. 

Bands of these hogs are led by a chief, who is 
the swiftest and fiercest of the herd. This aggres- 
sive leader is followed by successive lines of males, 
behind which come the strong females, while the 



204 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

rear is brought up by the old, the sick, and the 
young. In marching, they have the discipline of a 
trained army, and turn neither to the right nor 
to the left but go straight ahead. If the leader, 
for any cause, decides to change his route, the fact 
is quickly made known in some way to his follow- 
ers, and the turn is made at a direct angle, with 
the accuracy of a surveyor, and the peccaries go 
forward again directly toward their new destina- 
tion. This is another evidence of a special sense 
unknown to man. 

But whenever a stop is made, or wherever they 
go, they do their work as scavengers. Fallen fruits, 
dead animals, insects, snakes, and w T orms are their 
prey. Thus they are valuable forest sweepers. 

Strangely enough, in the animal w T orld, as in 
the human, the lower professions are filled with 
those of less mentality than the higher, and as a 
result we find scavengers are nearest allied to crim- 
inals. The idea of one creature killing and eating 
another seems terrible. Yet they do, and most oft- 
en do human beings commit the same crime. Can- 
nibalism among wild animals is a common occur- 
rence. The demand for food usually causes one 
animal to kill and devour another. But in cap- 
tivity there are other causes for cannibalism: fear 



ANIMAL SCAVENGERS 205 

and excitement will oftentimes cause a mother to 
destroy her offspring. 

It is a case of dog eat dog! Badgers often kill 
and devour their young. Wolves, in cases of ex- 
treme hunger, will eat their puppies; and Arctic 
travellers, when food for their dogs is scarce, have to 
guard constantly against the stronger eating the 
weaker. I once caught a mother field mouse with 
her two young and placed them in a cage ; the next 
day the young had strangely disappeared, but I am 
not sure that the mother had eaten them. Hogs, 
cats, and rabbits will sometimes kill and eat their 
young even when food is plentiful. Crocodiles 
show an occasional cannibalistic tendency, while 
water-shrews are very pugnacious and oftentimes 
fight until one is killed. The victorious one eats his 
enemy! Thus it appears that Nature does not en- 
tirely disapprove of cannibalism, or she would not 
allow so many of her creatures to practise it. 

Theft is a common vice among these various 
criminals. Monkeys and baboons form regular 
bands to rob and plunder. They have a chief who 
sees that a sentinel is posted at each dangerous post. 
The plunderers then line up in a long row, and the 
leader gets the booty and passes it along the line 
until it reaches the last of the band — the receiver. 
He deposits it in a safe place. If the sentry sounds 



206 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

an alarm, they all flee away, each with as much 
booty as he can grab. If the enemy presses too 
close, all booty is thrown away. 

Passion, especially of love, causes much crime 
among animals as it does among men. Jealousy 
burns fiercely even in the breast of a beast. It is 
a common heritage of the fiercest lion and the gen- 
tle gazelle alike, and is capable of perpetrating the 
most dreadful crimes. 

There are types of ugly dispositioned animals, 
who are always in a ferocious mood, just like cer- 
tain ill-tempered human beings, who believe every- 
thing and everybody is trying to injure them. The 
common shrew, for example, is noisy, bold and fussy. 
He seems to delight in calling attention to himself 
by his grunty, squeaky voice. He advertises him- 
self as a bad animal; and bad he is, for his ter- 
rible odour prevents other animals from coming 
near. Horses and mules are at times quite fero- 
cious, and kick and bite, with no idea of obedience 
or kindness. They, of course, like our human crim- 
inals, are mentally unbalanced. Skilled horse train- 
ers can detect at a glance a criminally inclined 
horse. 

Rogue elephants are common in India. Even 
their trumpeting shows a ferocity and unbalance 
that terrifies the natives. Often these criminal ele- 



ANIMAL SCAVENGERS 207 

phants are sufferers of mental ailments. A re- 
spectable, law-abiding elephant herd will not al- 
low a thug or rogue to live in their midst. They 
recognise him as dangerous for their society, and 
combine to force him entirely away from their 
homes. 

Certain criminal animals have a strange antipa- 
thy for members of their own tribe, or for other 
kinds of animals. Such is common among monkeys, 
cats, horses, and dogs, and many terrible crimes are 
committed because of these antipathies. Every one 
has witnessed the terror of a dog that has been 
insulted, and elephants will carry an old grudge 
for fifty years and finally seek the most terrible 
revenge. 

Often violent outbursts of temper on the part 
of a tame animal are caused by a change in the 
temperature or atmosphere. Even animals have 
days when they feel ugly and grouchy. Those that 
live in very hot climates are especially subject to 
fits of rage and anger. The approach of an elec- 
trical storm causes many of them to lose their self- 
control: herds of cattle often stampede just pre- 
ceding a cyclone. They, like human savages, seem 
terrorised at the unknown. Not a few wild animals 
have actually run in the way of an automobile or 
passing train to attempt to stop it. Fear and rage 



208 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

are often caused by the appearance of a curious 
object. A bull, for example, when he sees a red 
rag, will madly rush at it, seemingly altogether ob- 
livious of the man holding it. The matadors are 
safe only because the bull is insane from rage. 

Many scientists of fame, like Lombroso, have 
demonstrated that strong drink is the cause of much 
crime among animals, the same as it is among men. 
In the pastures of Abyssinia the sheep and goats 
get on regular "drunks" by eating the beans of the 
coffee plants. They fight and carouse at such 
times like regular topers. Elephants are incor- 
rigible when drunk, while dogs and horses have to 
be put in strait- jackets to prevent them from kill- 
ing themselves. 

Wicked animals always seek their own kind, and 
often band together for evil purposes. Figuier tells 
of three beavers that built for themselves a nice lit- 
tle home near a stream, and they had as a neigh- 
bour a respectable hermit beaver. The three called 
on their neighbour one day, and he received them 
cordially, and hastened to return their visit, when 
they pounced upon him and slew him, like human 
murderers, who had trapped their victim. 

From all these we learn that Nature is filled with 
life-saving and life-furthering adaptations. Just 
as in the human drama we find deceit, disguise, 



ANIMAL SCAVENGERS 209 

mask, trickery, bunco and bluff, all forms of cheat- 
ing and clever deceptions, so it is precisely the same 
in the animal world, though man is little informed 
on Nature's real ways. 



XIV 

AS THE ALLIES OF MAN 

"Who, after this, will dare gainsay 
That beasts have sense as well as they? 
For me — could I the ruler be — 
They should have just as much as we, 
In youth, at least. In early years, 
Who thinks, reflects, or even fears? 
Or if we do — unmeaning elves — 
'Tis scarcely known e'en to ourselves. 
Thus by example clear and plain, 
We for these poor creatures claim 
Sure sense to think, reflect, and plan, 
And in this action rival man: 
Their guide — not instinct blind alone, 
But reason, somewhat like our own!" 

THE wonderful world in which we live is full 
of animal life. In the great forests, under 
the ground, on the steep mountainsides, in the 
depths of the oceans, rivers, streams, from the frigid 
north to the torrid south, in the parched deserts, 
are animals of every size, colour, and form, all of 
which are, in their general form, adapted to their 

210 



AS THE ALLIES OF MAN 211 

peculiar places in nature. Their lives and habits 
undeniably demonstrate proofs of divine wisdom, 
intelligence, and beneficence. In fact they show 
an aptitude in many arts and sciences second only 
to that shown in man. 

The reason that animals are often held in such 
low esteem by the world of science, is because peo- 
ple are apt to look upon them as natural mechan- 
isms and overlook what they are doing and feeling. 
The propounders of false statements which attrib- 
ute every act of an intelligent animal — second 
only to man and his faithful ally — as due to in- 
stinct only, deal with metaphysical reasoning. They 
have never considered the innumerable and irre- 
futable facts of animal life which no acuteness of 
analysis and pure thinking can ever explain. Most 
of these narrow, bookish men deny to animals capa- 
bilities which every country schoolboy knows they 
possess. It is no exaggeration to say that animals 
exist which sing, dance, play, speak a language, 
build homes, go to school and learn, wage warfare, 
protect their homes and property, marry, make laws, 
build moral codes, in fact, do everything that is 
generally attributed to man. 

In comparing man and animals scientists are 
prone to ascribe to man as a whole the faculties 
which only the best trained and most talented pos- 



212 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

sess. They fail to consider our cannibal brethren, 
such as are found among the Dyaks on the Island 
of Borneo, whose chief articles of adornment in the 
house are heads of murdered men, and whose sav- 
age and fiendish ways would put to shame a civilised 
animal. They forget how long man lived on this 
earth before he even learned to make fire by chip- 
ping flints. 

Since the beginning of time animals have been 
the friends and allies of man. From the very earli- 
est ages they have in innumerable ways been asso- 
ciated with historical events, and with the laws, 
customs, superstitions, and religions of all nations 
of the universe. Love, devotion, gratitude, the 
sense of duty, as well as all the lower passions of 
hatred, revenge, distrust and cunning are their her- 
itage. Only an egotist who has known them in 
books only, and knows nothing of their mentality 
and brain power, would dare say that they are gov- 
erned solely by instinct. Cases of animal suicide, 
following some deep disgrace among them, are not 
uncommon. 

From the Bible we learn that God frequently 
employed animals as agents to dispense His provi- 
dence. Bullocks, sheep, goats were used by the 
Jews in their religious services, while a disobedient 
prophet was killed by a lion. Balaam was rebuked 



AS THE ALLIES OF MAN 213 

for his cruelty by an ass; and David even called 
upon the animals to aid in praising Jehovah ! That 
we may learn real gratitude for common mercies 
Isaiah says: "The ox knoweth his owner, and the 
ass his master's crib," etc. When the city of Nine- 
veh was threatened, God had pity on it, because 
there were many cattle there. The Saviour com- 
pared his own earthly condition with that of cer- 
tain animals: "The foxes have holes," etc. He 
called himself the 'Good Shepherd,' and his fol- 
lowers were sheep who knew his voice. John the 
Baptist referred to Him as the 'Lamb of God'; 
while John, the beloved disciple, when on the Isle 
of Patmos, saw the "throne of God in heaven, and 
before it a lion, a calf, a man, and a flying eagle." 

The first beginnings of co-operation between men 
and animals must have begun by the approach of 
certain less timid animals, which felt that better 
conditions for them and more food could be ob- 
tained near human habitations, and perhaps, more 
protection from dangerous animals. Or it may have 
begun through the stupidity of certain animals who 
failed to realize the danger of man's proximity. 

It seems that the secret ambition of all animals 
is to become the allies of man. This is demonstrated 
by the fact that most of them have gone near the 
villages and towns, and, consequently, there are 



214 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

comparatively few remaining in the heart of the big 
forests. Under the true state of conditions man 
should live in harmony with these animal brothers, 
with mutual trust and respect existing between 
them. That would mean, of course, that man would 
have to show a little more kindness to them. For 
while he is their true sovereign, he abuses the priv- 
ileges of his sovereignty in untold ways, and up to 
the present time only a few animals, like the dog 
and horse, have been fully recognized as his allies. 

All the others, with few exceptions, have shown 
a desire to become more closely united with man, 
and yet during the thousands of years of man's 
rulership over the beasts, he has been able to make 
allies of only about sixty. This regrettable fact 
speaks for itself — showing that man has long abused 
his trust. 

Warfare, as it is waged to-day, demonstrates that 
notwithstanding man's vast number of scientific 
aids, animals are still invaluable. The innumerable 
mechanical and electrical devices unknown ten years 
ago, such as enormous rapid-firing guns, walking 
"Willies," wireless machines, traction engines, 
smokeless and noiseless powder, silent-sleepers and 
tear-bombs, all of these have greatly increased 
man's power of offence and defence, yet with all 
these ultra-modern improvements, animals are 



AS THE ALLIES OF MAN 215 

absolutely essential in waging a successful war. 

In military circles there is an ever-increasing de- 
mand for well-trained army horses, sound in mind 
and body and educated in modern campaigning. 
Above all, an army horse must be dependable, 
must love his soldier-master and must know abso- 
lute obedience to orders. Every army horse has 
to pass an examination and prove his worth before 
he is enlisted into the service. 

The largest of the mountain guns used in Italy 
against the Austrians were drawn up the steep 
mountains by mules. Another 75 -millimetre gun 
for mountain warfare is taken to pieces, into four 
parts, and each piece is separately packed on a 
mule. 

The United States cavalry has the best trained 
war horses in the world; many of them actually 
understand the complicated commands of their mas- 
ters. These horse soldiers have the insignia, U. S., 
branded on the hoof of the left forefoot, and the 
other animals in camp, on the shoulder. 

When a horse arrives at a regiment he is as- 
signed to a troop according to colour, size, weight 
and mental efficiency, and later he is permanently 
assigned to a man. Under no conditions is he in- 
terchanged or even ridden by another than his mas- 
ter, and it is astonishing the tremendous affection 



216 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

that of ttimes springs up between the two ; in many 
instances horses have been known to seek out their 
masters among hundreds of soldiers. 

On the European battlefields, near which there 
are few or no railroads, animals have been the 
principal means of transportation, elephants, 
camels, horses, mules and oxen being chiefly used 
for this purpose. The Italian armies have used 
numerous teams of mountain-trained bullocks to 
draw loads up the mountains, and, while they 
cannot ascend roads as steep as those which the 
mules climb, they are very valuable for heavy 
loads. These bullocks work faster than an army 
mule, for a mule will never hurry. As the old 
darkey once said, "De mule warn't born fer to 
hurry; not even a torpedo would make him move 
one step farster!" 

Elephants have been used to a small degree in 
the armies of Europe. While they are splendid 
workmen, they are dangerously subject to stam- 
pede, and one stampeding elephant can do much 
harm in an army. 

The British army has used quite a few trained 
elephants from India in their ranks. They are 
especially employed to rout the enemy from small 
forests. Breaking through bushes, crushing under- 
brush, and pulling up small trees is their specialty. 



AS THE ALLIES OF MAN 217 

They make splendid bulwarks for soldiers, and 
when an army is marching through a forest, are 
invaluable in clearing the way. A British officer 
declared that one trained elephant is more valuable 
than a half-dozen traction engines. 

Far the most interesting and curious use to which 
an animal is subjected is the use of camels chosen 
and trained because of their strange colouring and 
height. Small groups of them have been stationed 
among clumps of acacia trees with a spy mounted 
on the animal's neck. This is the safest place a 
person could be, for the camel or, in like manner, 
the giraffe, standing with only his head above the 
small trees, looks precisely like a bit of the foliage 
in the distance. 

Camels are especially good for desert warfare, 
because they can go without water so long and can 
easily carry loads weighing from 400 to 500 pounds. 
In the last Afghan campaign the British lost over 
50,000 camels and in the Great War they have had 
more than 60,000 in army service in Egypt. Camels 
are especially used for transportation purposes. 
The British capture of Jerusalem was greatly aided 
by these desert allies. Large numbers of oxen 
have been used in the French army. They do not 
balk at autos and know no fear of shells. 

One of the greatest allies of the animal kingdom 



218 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

in warfare is the dog. These allies are trained to 
aid relief parties on the battlefields, and many of 
the ambulance men have their splendidly trained 
dogs for seeking out wounded soldiers among the 
dead. They are also trained as guards and watch- 
dogs and they become marvellously clever when 
used near the firing lines. They carry water in the 
trenches and are trained in packs to dismount 
enemy motorcyclists by pulling them from their 
machines. Dogs also make splendid scouts, and 
excellent and reliable messengers when not required 
to go too far. 

These faithful friends of man, according to 
BufFon, are far more easily taught than man, and 
more easily led "than any of the other animals, for 
not only does the dog become educated in a short 
time, but even adapts himself to the habits of those 
who control him." According to circumstances, 
a dog may become a soldier, messenger^ water-car- 
rier, or guard. 

Not the least among the uses of war dogs is the 
curious practice of sending them into the enemies' 
lines of cavalry to convey fire in order to terrorise 
the horses and throw them into confusion. This 
practice has been quite common in the past. Each 
dog is dressed in a cuirass of leather and on his 
back is carefully strapped a pot of boiling, blazing 




g 

o 

H 
m 
o 

w 
H 

H 

o 



§ H 



AS THE ALLIES OF MAN 219 

tar. Nothing so terrorises horses as the sight of 
approaching fire. 

A small but valuable ally to man is the ferret. 
This little creature has come into prominence more 
particularly during recent years, when the rat in- 
fested trenches have made his services invaluable. 
These Hun-like rats, devouring and devastating in 
their thirst for human blood, would have forced the 
abandonment of many a front line trench but for 
the aid of these trained ferrets, thousands of which 
have been daily employed on the battle fronts. 

The immense services rendered by carrier 
pigeons in the battle of the Marne, not only to the 
military authorities, but also to the public at large, 
will cause the civilised world to pay more attention 
to the importance of these birds in the future. They 
carried all kinds of messages to and from Paris 
during this memorable battle; in fact, they have 
been used in all the battles as invaluable messengers. 

Small animals, such as mice, canary birds, guinea 
pigs and rabbits are used in trench warfare, because 
they are more sensitive than man to poisonous 
gases. It sometimes happens that hundreds of men 
must be rescued from a trench by three or four men. 
Each rescuer carries with him a canary bird in a 
small cage attached to his shoulder. And as long 
as these birds show no signs of distress the men are 



220 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

safe from gas poison. The birds soon become at- 
tached to their masters and seem to like the adven- 
ture of the trenches. 

As time goes on, it is to be hoped that we will 
understand our animal brothers better, and that our 
old attitude toward the so-called "brutes" will be 
entirely changed. Heretofore we have greatly 
abused the zebra, for example, because of his wild 
disposition, ferocious humour, distrust of all power 
except that in his own legs, and his pronounced 
aversion to work. 

Why should we reproach him for his wild-wood 
philosophy? It is perfectly natural that any animal 
of his experience with man, and with sufficient 
brains, would have only contempt for all mankind. 
His native home is in Africa, and his human asso- 
ciates, if they are human, have been the Hottentots, 
the Namaquois or the Amazoulons — the most im- 
possible and hideous people on the earth. Since his 
babyhood days he has seen nothing but cannibalism 
and carnage among the savages ; and since his trans- 
portation to Europe by a strange occurrence of 
horrible circumstances, he has been the subject for 
all kinds of barbarous punishments which man has 
seen well to heap upon him. The zebra is not of 
the mental calibre to be suddenly seized with love 
for the human species and its civilisations! And 



AS THE ALLIES OF MAN 221 

the human species is astounded and thinks the zebra 
stupid and wicked. He may be both, but his wis- 
dom is undeniable when it comes to trusting hu- 
manity, and his wickedness is small in comparison 
to man's terrible cruelties. He should be awarded 
a medal for wisdom! For man is far the greater 
ass of the two ! 

He roams the wild prairies where the fields need 
no ploughing. There he finds an abundance of grass 
and fresh water along the streams. No loud curs- 
ing and swearing ever greets his ears, nothing but 
the sweet song of the wild birds. And his children 
romp and play with him, free as the winds that 
blow. Of course, he has enemies even there, and 
so he uses camouflage by painting himself in at- 
tractive stripes, so no one can see him at a distance. 
Even Solomon should have praised his wisdom! 

In the beginning God created man, and not long 
after gave him as his policeman, the dog. And the 
obedience, friendship and devotion of the dog to 
his master has been unending. The dog discusses 
no questions of right or wrong, his only duty is to 
obey. This he does without a murmur. He is the 
greatest testimony to man's civilisation, the first 
and the greatest element of human progress. 
Through his co-operation man was elevated from 
the savage to the state of the civilised. He made 



222 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

the herd possible. Without him there could have 
been no herd, no assured subsistence of food and 
clothing, no time to study and improve the mind, 
no astronomical observations, no science, no arts, 
no automobiles, no airships, no wireless telegraphy 
— nothing. The East is the home of civilisation, 
because the East is the home of the dog. 

A young hound knows more about tracking game 
or scenting the enemy after six months' practice 
than the most skilled savage after fifty years of 
study. The dog has so aided mankind as to give 
him more time for study and self-improvement. 
Thus began the arts and sciences. An interesting, 
and we believe original observation, of the influence 
of the dog on peoples is that wherever the dog is 
found, especially among the shepherd peoples, such 
as the Chaldeans, Egyptians, Arabs, Tartars, and 
Mongols, cannibalism is unknown. This is due to 
the fact that the dog enables them to maintain the 
herds which supply them with milk, food, and 
clothing, thus preserving them from the criminal 
temptation of hunger. 

The Indians of North America never refrained 
from roasting their enemies until they made allies 
of the horse and dog. Humboldt proves the lively 
regret held by one of the last surviving chief lieu- 
tenants of the war-like Tecumseh whom he asked 



AS THE ALLIES OF MAN 223 

about a certain American officer who took part 
in the fight. "Uh!" replied the Indian, "I eat 
some of him." "Do you still eat your enemies?" 
asked Humboldt. "No," replied the Indian. "Big 
dog catch heap meat for me!" 

Surely no animal could be more uncivilised or 
cannibalistic in its desires than man! Spinoza be- 
lieved, however, that benevolence in animals con- 
sisted only in their kindliness and friendly feeling 
for each other and that we should expect nothing 
more of them. A good cow, so he thought, was one 
that was kind to her calf, however ferocious she 
might be toward human children. But we do not 
accept this standard of goodness, nor believe that 
animals' kindness extends only to their own tribes. 
Their lowest standard of life is no worse than the 
cannibalism existing among the lower tribes of un- 
civilised man, which is one of the highest ideals of 
tribal life. The greatest hero among our savages 
is the one that can put the most enemies to death. 

Many animals seem to have a social instinct and 
a moral sentiment toward man. They try to break 
the old bonds of distrust between their master 
and themselves. This is especially true of the puma, 
second to the largest of the big cats of the Americas, 
which seems to love the society of man, and seeks 
not only to be near him, but to protect him from 



224 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

the attacks of the much-dreaded jaguar. A civil 
engineer tells the story of an experience he had 
while journeying up one of the big South American 
rivers by boat. At their nightly encampments one 
of the passengers on board was an old miner who 
insisted on sleeping in a hammock suspended be- 
tween two small trees. His weight was sufficient 
to bring the hammock almost to the ground at its 
lowest curve. One morning, his friends inquired 
how he had slept, and he complained that "the frogs 
and small animals had made so much noise under 
the hammock that he could not sleep." One of the 
Indian servants roared with laughter, as he said, 
"Uh, 'tiger' sleep with old man last night. He 
watch him!" — tiger being the Indian term for the 
puma. Careful searching revealed the footprints 
of an immense puma, and that he had evidently 
lain directly under the hammock. The noise which 
had kept the old man from sleeping was the purring 
of the animal, pleased over the privilege of sleeping 
so near a man. These Guiana Indians know the 
ways of the forests, and have a special liking for 
wild animals. This entire absence of fear in the 
puma is the same as exhibited by the tame house cat. 
Many animals seem fond of human companion- 
ship, and are easily tamed. My sister raised a small 
red deer in Texas, and he became so perfectly tame 



AS THE ALLIES OF MAN 225 

that he would follow her wherever she went, and 
would even take food from her hand. In Yellow- 
stone Park the deer are so tame they will come into 
the yards to get food, while the brown bears ap- 
proach the hotels like tramps, and many of the 
smaller animals are perfectly fearless. At the 
Bronx Zoological Gardens, and the London Zoo, 
the animals have lost all fear. They seem to realise 
that they have no power to escape and depend 
entirely upon man for their daily food. But, of 
course, their conditions are artificial, hence such 
conclusions as we may draw as to their normal atti- 
tude toward man do not necessarily indicate the 
innate character of their wild kinsmen. We occa- 
sionally find, for instance, that in unsettled regions 
like parts of Mexico and South America, where 
animals are plentiful and man's influence largely 
absent, they are found to be particularly ferocious, 
yet even then lions and leopards rarely attack men 
unless disturbed in some unusual way. 

Quite a few naturalists and scientists believe that 
the animals' love for man was acquired and not 
natural. But if this be true, how did the very early 
tribes of men escape destruction at the hands of the 
wild beasts which were far more numerous than at 
present? The animal kingdom was evidently im- 
pressed by the power of man at a very early stage 



226 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

of its development, but in just what manner or 
what period of time this came to pass is not known. 

If we regard the conflict as merely between two 
great groups of animals, surely the animals should 
have won, and man would have disappeared from 
the face of the earth. The fact that he did not, and 
that he became master of the animals, is presump- 
tive evidence that man exceeded the animals in 
intelligence. 

Primitive man could have lived in no other way 
than by "his wits." For he was not nearly so well 
equipped for defence as are the monkeys of to-day. 
Their greatest power is in the ability to use their 
arms and hands in swinging rapidly from branch 
to branch. This gives them an advantage over all 
tree-climbing cats. They are very proficient in 
throwing stones and other missiles. This is dumb- 
founding to other animals. Of course, their intelli- 
gent and quick-witted methods of defence, menace, 
guard-duty, and loyalty to tribe makes them great 
warriors, and enables them to survive even the on- 
slaughts of their greatest enemy and nightmare of 
every non-carnivorous animal — the harpy eagle! 

Through the necessary adjustments growing out 
of the close relationships of men to animals, the 
mental faculties of both have been greatly stimu- 
lated and advanced. The least developed races 



AS THE ALLIES OF MAN 227 

seem to be in such places as Tierra del Fuego, where 
there are no savage animals, and, therefore, no 
inducement for man to arm and defend himself. 
The Pygmies of Central Africa are mighty hunters, 
otherwise they could not survive. Even the Esqui- 
maux are masters of the great polar bears and other 
northern animals. 

In the wilds of Africa, where animals have had 
a terrible struggle for existence, not only against 
disagreeable climatic conditions, but all kinds of 
fellow-foes as well, we find the nkengos have at- 
tained a civilisation that almost equals that of our 
savage brothers. And these pale-faced little beings, 
with their wrinkled, care-worn, parchment-like 
skins, remind one of ill-treated, white, human- 
dwarfs. Their name, nkengo, means wild animal- 
men, and when tamed they actually make excellent 
family servants for men. 

These closest allies of man live in tall bamboo 
trees, and are so curiously human that when seen 
walking around hunting berries, nuts, and fruits, 
talking in guttural, chattering tones* like old fisher- 
women, no one could doubt even their kinship to 
man. 

Their children assemble in groups to romp and 
play under the guardianship of either one of their 
mothers or grandmothers; while the men forage 



228 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

for food, and watch for enemies. It is not uncom- 
mon to see an aged, half-decrepit nkengo lying on 
a bed of sticks in a tall tree. Here he eats only 
green leaves and bits of fruit brought him by some 
kind friend, being far too weak to hunt for food 
himself, and furthermore, fearing an attack from his 
mortal enemy, the leopard. 

If the colony decides to move to other territory, 
either because of enemies or the scarcity of food, 
they all assemble and hold a farewell gathering in 
which there is much mourning and apparent grief 
at forever leaving their aged kin to the fate of the 
wilds. If they are possibly able to walk, they are 
given patient assistance in travelling along. Some- 
times, when they are deserted, sympathetic friends 
return for days with berries and koola nuts, until 
at last the colony has gone so far away that none 
dare return alone, in which event these helpless 
superannuated members are left to die in their lone 
tree-top beds. 

Many of these beds are as well made as the tree- 
beds of human beings, and even better than the beds 
of the savage Dyaks of Borneo. They are usually 
located in tall trees, inaccessible to leopards and 
out of reach of their most dreaded of all enemies, 
the terrible hordes of war-ants. From these noth- 
ing escapes — not even elephants and tigers. 



AS THE ALLIES OF MAN 229 

The arrival of a baby to these nkengos is of far 
more importance in their tree-top village, than in a 
human city. Each of the female relatives, and also 
the aged males, takes special interest in the new- 
comer, and they chatter around his little grape- 
vine cradle with much enthusiasm, shaking their 
heads and delicately handling his tiny hands and 
toes as though he were the baby of a king. 

This baby is much stronger and quicker to learn 
than human babies; for when he is only two days 
old he is able to cling to his mother, so that she 
can carry him with her on her hunting trips. If 
he becomes too noisy from sheer delight when she 
is travelling through the forest with him, she slaps 
him, in an attempt to quiet him, lest the leopards 
get him. 

At night he sleeps snugly by his mother's side 
in the great tree-bed, and she never allows him to 
crawl out of her arms for fear that he fall to the 
depths below. She loves him dearly, and watches 
with human eagerness for his first tooth. He loves 
his mother and will stand for hours while she 
dresses his hair; or lie on her breast as she rubs his 
little back. 

These wild-children are always ill-tempered and 
self-willed. No human mother has to show more 
patience and love than does the nkengo mother. 



230 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

She takes the greatest delight in his first efforts 
at climbing and hunting, and for hours she and 
his admiring relatives will watch him attempting 
to climb a cocoanut tree. Sometimes she will climb 
just behind him to catch him if he falls or becomes 
frightened. 

His arms soon become very powerful, for he is 
constantly swinging, climbing, and exercising by 
hanging from a bough with one hand while he 
pulls himself up with the great power of his mus- 
cles. He is able to gather koola nuts long before 
his jaws are strong enough to crack them; so his 
fond mother cracks them for him until his hands 
and mouth are stronger. Like all babies, his ambi- 
tion is to be big and strong like his father. 

Some of the apes are most intelligent and human, 
and, as allies to man, are more desirable than cer- 
tain of the human savages. Dr. Livingstone, in 
his Last Journals, describes one he first discovered. 
"Their teeth," he says, "are slightly human, but 
their canines show the beast by their large develop- 
ment. The hands, or rather the fingers, are like 
those of the natives. They live in communities 
consisting of about a dozen individuals, and are 
strictly monogamous in their conjugal relations, 
and vegetarian, or rather frugivorous, in their diet, 
their favourite food being bananas." The natives 



AS THE ALLIES OF MAN 231 

where these apes live are cannibals, and Dr. Liv- 
ingstone says, "they are the lowest of the low." 
One of their number, who had committed a great 
murder, offered his grandmother "to be killed in 
expiation of his offence, and this vicarious punish- 
ment was accepted as satisfactory." 

Thus it is evident that certain of these wild- 
creatures — like the sokos — have a more correct 
conception of justice than their human associates, 
the savages. At least the animals do not make the 
innocent suffer for the guilty, and give their lives 
unjustly. Should a soko try to take another's 
wife he is publicly punished by the tribe. These 
animals have a great sense of humour and fully 
enjoy a practical joke. Strangely enough, they 
never attack women and children, but if any man 
approaches them with a spear or gun, they try to 
rush upon him, often at the expense of their own 
life, and wrest the weapon from him. Most of 
them are exceedingly kind and civilised in their 
actions, and natives always say, "Soko is a man, 
and nothing bad in him." 

Often they kidnap babies and carry them up into 
trees. But these are never harmed and the apes 
are ever ready to exchange them for bananas. The 
robbery is, no doubt, for the purpose of extortion. 
If perchance one of their children is stolen, the 



232 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

entire forest sets up a scream and wail until it is 
returned. Old hunters and travellers say that they 
would rather steal the child of a native savage 
than to take one of the sokos. If one of the soko 
children disappears, and they do not know what 
became of it, they immediately send out detectives 
throughout the country to seek for it. And woe be 
the home where a stolen soko baby is found! 

But man has one great power — a far more po- 
tent ally than he has in his animal friends — the use 
of fire. Unquestionably to the minds of animals 
it is a supernatural power. They cannot create it, 
understand it, and it is very doubtful if they can 
yet use it to advantage. How marvellous is this 
thing — fire! That great blazing pillar of cloud 
that destroys all, and leaves nothing to show where 
it has taken its enemies ! To animals it springs up 
wherever man rests his head, and protects him 
while he sleeps. It is always with him, and its pres- 
ence for untold ages has brought terror to all of 
them. 

Not a few reports tell us that certain of our 
animal allies among the monkey folk of South 
Africa use fire. This may not be true; but it is 
probable that the time is near at hand when the 
wild baboon-men of the woods will learn to make 
and use fire just as we have done. 



AS THE ALLIES OF MAN 233 

Enough instances could be shown illustrating 
animals as man's allies to fill an entire book, but 
a sufficient number have been adduced to show how 
truly they are our allies, helpers, and protectors 
just as we are theirs, only their mode of manifest- 
ing it is different. We have shown the absolute 
fallacy of the old belief that animals lack men- 
tality, and that all their acts of kindness are based 
upon self-love and personal gain, and have seen 
that in proportion to their opportunities in life, 
they have quite as much mentality and brotherly 
love for each other and mankind as is found among 
our lower savages. We have seen that among ani- 
mals as among men, individuals will give their lives 
for their fellows, serve the weak and timid, and 
demonstrate the highest and holiest feelings of 
which true souls can be capable, and always share 
equally with man the burdens that fall upon them- 
selves and their human allies. And the time is 
already here when man should protect his animal 
friends more, and teach them through human kind- 
ness not to fear him. But this can only be done 
when he is willing to treat them as fellow beings 
only a little below him in the scale of existence. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE FUTURE LIFE OF ANIMALS 

"Ah, poor companion! when thou followedst last 
Thy master's parting footsteps to the gate 
Which closed forever on him, thou didst lose 
Thy best friend, and none was left to plead 
For the old age of brute fidelity. 
But fare thee well. Mine is no narrowed creed; 
And He who gave thee being did not frame 
The mystery of Life to be the sport 
Of merciless man. There is another world 
For all that live and move — a better one! 
Where the proud bipeds, who would fain confine 
Of their own charity, may envy thee." 

— Southey (on the death of his dog). 

THE old belief is still prevalent that the Bible 
teaches that of all living creatures man alone 
is immortal. This erroneous belief springs out of 
man's egotism, however, and is not substantiated 
by the Scriptures. Among many of the Old Testa- 
ment writers we find that immortality was assured 
for neither man nor animals; whereas, with the 
larger revelation of the New Testament, immor- 

234 



FUTURE LIFE OF ANIMALS 235 

tality is no longer questioned for any living 
creature. 

There are, of course, many supposedly intelli- 
gent people who deny to animals the power of 
reason, and attribute all their marvellous powers 
and abilities to blind instinct. It is, therefore, not 
the least bit surprising that the vast majority of 
people believe that when an animal dies, its life 
principle dies also. The animating power, they 
believe, is destroyed, and the body returns to the 
dust. 

These mistaken conclusions are largely, if not 
wholly, due to two passages of Scripture, one of 
which is in the Psalms and the other in Ecclesiastes. 
The one most often quoted, from the Psalms, runs 
in the authorised version: "Nevertheless, man 
being in honor, abideth not; he is like the beasts 
that perish." This verse is frequently quoted as 
decisive of the whole question. The other passage, 
which is found in Ecclesiastes, reads: "Who 
knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and 
the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the 
earth?" 

It is upon the authority of these two passages 
that we are supposed to believe that when an ani- 
mal dies, its life has gone forever, departed, ex- 
pired. In this new age of thought and discovery. 



236 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

we do not attempt to explain a passage of Scrip- 
ture, no matter how simple it may appear to be, 
without referring to the original text, that we may 
see if the translator has kept the true sense of the 
words and adequately expressed their significance, 
remembering that words often change their mean- 
ing, and that the original use of a word may have 
conveyed exactly the opposite meaning to that 
which we at present attach to it. 

But if we accept the passage just as it stands, 
with the literal meaning of the words as is usually 
understood, there is but one conclusion — animals 
have no future life. Death ends all for them. But, 
on the other hand, if we are to take the literal in- 
terpretation of the Bible only, we are forced to 
believe that man, as well as the animals, has no life 
after death. Surely the book of Psalms is full of 
examples to support this literal interpretation. 
For example, "In death there is no remembrance 
of thee: in the grave, who shall give thee thanks?" 
Again, "The dead praise not the Lord, neither any 
that go down into silence." Or, "His breath goeth 
forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day 
his thoughts perish." These quotations could be 
greatly added to, and if taken in their literal sense, 
we would reach but one conclusion — death ends all 
for every living creature ! Nothing in all the litera- 



FUTURE LIFE OF ANIMALS 237 

ture of the earth could be more gloomy and dis- 
couraging than these quotations with numerous 
others that contemplate death. Yet, vain man 
takes one little passage that seemingly denies a 
future life to animals from the same book that 
many times over denies a future life to mankind; 
in fact, there are five times as many Scripture pas- 
sages claiming for man that all ends in death as 
there are for animals. Over and over we are told 
that those who have died have no remembrance of 
God, and cannot praise Him. The Bible speaks 
of death as the "land of forgetfulness," — the place 
of darkness, where all man's thoughts perish. 
Nothing more than this could be said of the "ani- 
mals that perish!" 

Other Biblical writers referred to mankind as 
those who "dwell in houses of clay," and Job says: 
"They are destroyed from morning to evening; 
they perish forever, without any regarding it." In 
another place he says: "As the cloud is consumed 
and vanisheth away, so he that goeth down to the 
grave shall come up no more." Again he speaks 
of "the land of darkness and the shadow of death," 
and says: "Man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, 
man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? As the 
waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and 
drieth up : so man lieth down, and riseth not." Job 



238 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

laments the pitiable conditions of his life, and com- 
plains that life was ever granted to him, and that 
even death can bring nothing to him except ex- 
tinction. 

Yet, if we examine Ecclesiastes, the book in 
which we find the single passage upon which many 
people base a belief in the non-future existence of 
animals, there are passages which are really no 
more positive as to the future of mankind. For 
example, "I said in my heart concerning the estate 
of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, 
and that they might see that they themselves are 
beasts. For that which befalleth the sons of men 
bef alleth beasts ; even one thing befalleth them. As 
the one dieth, so dieth the other ; yea, they have all 
one breath, so that a man has no pre-eminence over 
a beast : for all is vanity. All go unto one place ; all 
are of the dust, and all turn to the dust again." 
Again it is said: "For the living know that they 
shall die, but the dead know not anything, neither 
have they any more a reward, for the memory of 
them is forgotten;" and "Whatsoever thy hand find- 
eth to do, do it with thy might ; for there is no work, 
nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave 
whither thou goest." 

By interpreting these words literally, there is 
but one conclusion relative to a future spiritual life, 



FUTURE LIFE OF ANIMALS 239 

namely, that there is absolutely no distinction be- 
tween man and his "lower brother" animals, and 
that when they die they all go to the same place. 
It is emphatically said that after death man knows 
nothing, receives no reward, and can do no work. 
Job has the same gloomy strain running through 
his writings, and Ecclesiastes gives a most morbid 
and gloomy view of death. 

However, no modern Biblical scholar accepts 
these passages in this literal light, for it is known 
that they were written symbolically, or as parables, 
and were not intended to be literally interpreted. 
They have a spiritual significance. We are, how- 
ever, not interested here so much with this spiritual 
sense as we are with the literal implication of the 
translation. Therefore, according to this literal 
meaning of the two texts, if we accept them to 
prove that animals have no future life, we are 
forced to believe by at least fourteen passages, of 
equal if not greater power, that man shares their 
same fate after death. No man has a right to select 
certain passages from the same book of the Bible 
and say that they shall be accepted literally, and 
that other passages of equal merit shall be inter- 
preted otherwise. They must all be treated the 
same. 

All scholars are familiar with that remarkable 



240 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

eleventh book of Homer's Odyssey, known as the 
Necromanteia, or Invocation of the Dead, and 
in it Ulysses descends into the regions of the de- 
parted spirits to invoke them and obtain advice 
as to his future adventures. One commentator 
says: "He sails to the boundaries of the ocean, 
and lands in the country of the Cimmerians, who 
dwell in perpetual cloud and darkness, and in 
whose country are the gates leading to the regions 
of the dead." All is darkness, discontent, hunger; 
nothing is said of virtue, wisdom, beauty, happi- 
ness. Only bitter gloom ! No wonder this heathen 
poet considered, with such views of a future life, 
sensual pleasures as the chief object of this life. 

The following dialogue between the inhabitants 
of the earth and the dweller in the regions of the 
dead — between Ulysses and Achilles — is remark- 
able for its horrible depiction of the future life: 

"Through the thick gloom his friend Achilles knew, 
As he speaks the tears dissolve in dew. 
'Comest thou alive to view the Stygian bounds, 
Where the wan spectres walk eternal rounds; 
Nor fear'st the dark and dismal waste to tread, 
Thronged with pale ghosts familiar with the dead?' 
To whom with sighs, 'I pass these dreadful gates 
To seek the Theban, and consult the Fates; 
For still distressed I roam from coast to coast, 
Lost to my friends and to my country lost. 



FUTURE LIFE OF ANIMALS 241 

But sure the eye of Time beholds no name 

So blessed as thine in all the rolls of fame; 

Alive we hailed thee with our guardian gods, 

And, dead thou rulest a king in these abodes/ 

'Talk not of ruling in this dolorous gloom, 

Nor think vain words (he cried) can ease my doom. 

Rather I'd choose laboriously to bear 

A weight of woes and breathe the vital air, 

A slave for some poor hind that toils for bread, 

Than reign the sceptered monarch of the dead/ " 

Yet, even this outpouring of hopeless words by 
the heathen poet is encouraging when compared to 
the writings of the Psalmist, of Solomon or Job, for 
those who have gone beyond the grave still have 
memory, an interest in their friends on earth, love 
and desire. But no such hope exists for man, if 
we are to accept literally all the passages of Scrip- 
ture which have been quoted. By such interpreta- 
tion, man passes after death into eternal darkness, 
forgetfulness, silence, "where there is no work, 
nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom — where 
even his very thoughts perish. ,, If these particular 
passages are to be accepted as final on the subject, 
there is no future life for either man or animal. 
They are too definite to admit of any interpetation 
that might soften or alter their meaning. 

It may be shocking to some to compare the belief 
of an ancient Greek and the teachings of a Latin 



242 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

Epicurean with the sacred writings of the Bible. 
Yet, it may be even more startling to point out that 
some of the teachings of the Epicurean sensualist 
are quite as good as some of those of the writers 
of the sacred texts, and that those of the Greek 
poet are far better and more spiritual! There is 
no denying that these are the facts, if we are to 
be bound by literal interpretation, unless we throw 
to the winds all reason and commonsense. 

This leads us back to the point previously men- 
tioned; and we must determine if the authorised 
version gives a full and truthful interpretation of 
the Hebrew original. Even a man who does not 
pretend to scholarship knows that it does not. The 
word "perish," for example, is not found at all in 
the Hebrew text, nor is the idea expressed; the 
words which our translation twice renders as 
"beasts that perish," is, in the original Hebrew, 
"dumb beasts." By comparing a number of the 
translations of the Psalms, into various languages 
— Psalm XLIX, for example — we find that few, 
if any, of them suggest the idea of "perishing" in 
the sense of annihilation. First, let us consider the 
Jewish Bible, which is acknowledged to be the most 
accurate translation in the English language, and 
carefully read it. In verses 12 and 20 of the above 
Psalm, where the passage is found, the translation 



FUTURE LIFE OF ANIMALS 243 

reads : "Man that is in honour, and understandeth 
this not, is like the beasts that are irrational." In 
a footnote the word "dumb" is offered as an alter- 
native for "irrational." Brunton's translation of 
the Septuagint is similar, and reads: "Man that 
is in honour understands not, he is compared to the 
senseless cattle, and is like them." Wycliffe's 
Bible, which is translated from the Vulgate, reads 
thus: "A man whanne he was in honour under- 
stood it not; he is compared to unwise beestis, and 
is maad lijk to tho." The "Douay" Bible, put 
forth by the English Catholic College of Douay 
and which is received by the Catholic Church in 
England, gives the passage: "Man, when he was 
in honour, did not understand; he hath been com- 
pared to senseless beasts, and made like to them." 
Many other versions might be cited, and very few 
of them even suggest the idea of annihilation. If, 
for argument's sake, we suppose that the word 
"perish" has been correctly translated, it by no 
means follows that annihilation is signified. Read, 
for example, the tenth verse of the same Psalm in 
our authorised translation: "For he seeth that 
wise men die, and likewise the fool and the brutish 
person perish, and leave their wealth to others." 
Certainly no intelligent person would interpret this 
passage as declaring that the wise and the foolish 



244 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

and the brutish have no life after the body dies. 

It is plain, therefore, that we may dismiss for- 
ever the idea that the Psalmist believed the beasts 
had no future life, and the citation may be rejected 
as absolutely irrelevant to the subject, and the only 
one that appears to make any definite statements 
as to the future life of the lower animals. Every 
student of the Bible will at once recognise how nec- 
essary it is that the original meaning of the Hebrew 
text should be known, and that the Psalmist should 
not be accused of setting forth a doctrine of such 
great importance, whether true or false, when he 
may never even have thought or suggested it. 

Having disposed of the possibility of a misunder- 
standing of the real meaning of the "beasts that 
perish," let us consider the quotation from Eccle- 
siastes, the only one that refers to the future state 
of animals. "Who knoweth the spirit of man that 
goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that 
goeth downward to the earth?" We find an ad- 
mission here that, whether the spirit ascends or 
descends, man and beasts alike have the immortal 
spark. The Hebrew version is precisely the same 
as our authorised translation. Read, not an iso- 
lated verse, but the entire passage: 

"I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the 
sons of man, that God might manifest them, and 




TWO PALS. THERE IS BETWEEN MAN AND DOG A KINSHIP OF SPIRIT THAT 
CANNOT BE DENIED. 



FUTURE LIFE OF ANIMALS 245 

that they might see that they themselves are beasts. 

"For that which befalleth the sons of men be- 
falleth beasts; even the one thing befalleth them; 
as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have 
all one breath ; so that a man hath no pre-eminence 
above a beast: for all is vanity. 

"All go to one place; all are of the same dust, 
and all turn to dust again. 

"Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth up- 
ward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth down- 
ward to the earth? 

"Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing 
better than that a man should rejoice in his own 
works; for that is his portion; for who shall bring 
him to see what shall be after him?" 

These verses tell their own story. It matters 
little whether Solomon wrote this book in his later 
years ; it is, in any event, the confession of one who 
has had all the good things of this world, and who 
saw the emptiness of them all, and who sums up 
life with the words "Vanity of vanities, all is van- 
ity." Finally the author ironically advises his read- 
ers to trust only in the good of their labour. 

Thus it is shown that the quotation from the 
Psalms in no way justifies the belief in the annihila- 
tion of beasts, and that the one from Ecclesiastes 
has been entirely and wrongfully misunderstood 



246 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

and interpreted. In no way do the Scriptures deny 
future life to the lower animals, but in all ways, if 
intelligently understood, imply that man and 
beasts have, equally, a share in a future life beyond 
the grave. 

As we have found out that the Scriptures, con- 
trary to the popular belief, do not deny a future 
life to our lower brethren, the animals, let us see 
if they actually declare a future world for them in 
the same way that they do for man. Man's im- 
mortality, as we know, is taught in the Old Testa- 
ment rather by inference than by direct affirma- 
tion. This is possibly due to the fact that the 
writers of the manifold books, which were at a late 
date selected from a large number and made into 
one big volume which forms our Bible, thought as 
a matter of course that man lived on after death, 
and never thought it necessary to assert that which 
every one knew. 

But if we accept the teachings of the Old Testa- 
ment, inference gives much stronger testimony to 
the immortality of animals than it does to the im- 
mortality of man, for while in neither case is there 
a direct assertion of a future life, yet there is no 
direct denial of future life to the animals, as has 
been shown to be the case with man. 

All Divine Law includes a protection for the 



FUTURE LIFE OF ANIMALS 247 

beasts, and the laws of the Sabbath were in essence 
a spiritual and not only a physical ordinance. The 
ancient Scriptures have innumerable provisions 
against mistreating or giving unnecessary pain to 
the lower animals; and these provisions stand side 
by side in the Divine Law with those which speak 
of man. Note, for example, the prohibition of 
"seething a kid in its mother's milk." Again, there 
is a statement that the ox in treading out the corn 
is not to be muzzled, lest he suffer hunger in the 
presence of food which he may not eat. 

In the following sentences from the Book of 
Jonah, it is plainly seen that the Deity has not 
failed to take notice of the animals: "And should 
I not spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are 
more than six score thousand persons that cannot 
discern between their right hand and their left 
hand; and also much cattle?" Again, in the 
Psalms, "Every beast of the forest is mine, and the 
cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls 
of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field 
are mine." Other passages that proclaim God as 
the protector of beasts, as well as man, might be 
cited, for the Bible makes frequent mention of 
them. Each of these Scriptures unquestionably 
proves that God has an interest in all His crea- 
tures, and that each shares His universal love. 



248 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

No one can deny that Genesis, ninth chapter and 
fifth verse, refers to a future life for beasts as well 
as man; it is a part of the law which was given to 
Noah and which was the forerunner of the fuller 
law handed down through Moses: "Surely, your 
blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of 
every beast will I require it, and at the hand of 
every man; at the hand of every man's brother will 
I require the life of man." According to the Mo- 
saic law, an ox which kills a man is subject to death, 
exactly as a human murderer. Why should the 
animal be punished by death, if he has no soul to be 
forfeited? 

It should be remembered that while there are no 
Scriptural passages that definitely promise immor- 
tality to animals, there are many which infer it. 
Moreover, we should not expect to gain definite 
information on the subject from the Bible, for it 
was written for human beings and not for animals. 
If there are few direct references to the future life 
of man, surely there must be still fewer to that of 
animals ! 

But just as man has for countless ages had 
within himself an everlasting witness to his own 
immortality, so do we find that all who have really 
become acquainted with the lower animals, with 
their unselfishness, parental love, devotion to duty, 



FUTURE LIFE OF ANIMALS 249 

generosity, wonderful mentality, and self-sacrifice 
— all those who know them realise that they are 
subject to the same moral law as man and share 
with him a future life. 

Lamartine beautifully expresses a future hope 
for his faithful dog: 

"I cannot, will not, deem thee a deceiving, 

Illusive mockery of human feeling, 

A body organized, by fond caress 

Warmed into seeming tenderness; 

A mere automaton, on which our love 

Plays, as on puppets, when their wires we move. 

No! when that feeling quits thy glazing eye, 

'Twill live in some blest world beyond the sky." 

Who can say that from the depths of the wide 
ocean, from regions unknown, and lands unex- 
plored by man; from the remotest islands of the 
sea, and even from the far icy North, there are not 
animal voices ever rising in praise of our common 
Creator? The Bible says: "The Lord is good to 
all, and His tender mercies are over all His works,' ' 
and, "All Thy works shall praise thee, O Lord," — 
surely these endorse the above statements. And 
why should man define the limit of God's goodness, 
His love, care, and attention to the wants and needs 
of all His creatures? 



250 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

The distinguished animal authority, Dr. Aber- 
crombie, admitted that animals have an "imma- 
terial principle" in them, which is distinct from 
matter. But he does not say that this principle, 
or soul, will live after death, as it is supposed to in 
man. However, many scholars both of ancient and 
modern times hold this opinion. Broderip, in his 
Zoological Recreations devotes much space in re- 
ferring to ancient philosophers and poets, Chris- 
tian Fathers, and Jewish Rabbis that have believed 
in the immortality of animals. The heroes of Vir- 
gil have horses to drive in the Elysian fields; the 
Greek poets gave to Orion dogs. Rabbi Manesseh, 
speaking of the resurrection, says, "brutes will then 
enjoy a much happier state of being than they ex- 
perienced here," and a number of scholars, like 
Philo Judseus, believe that ferocious beasts will 
in a future state lose their ferociousness. Among 
more recent scholars who hold this belief is Dr. 
John Brown, who boldly says: "I am one of those 
who believe that dogs have a next world; and why 
not?" The Rev. J. G.Wood said: "Much of the 
present heedlessness respecting animals is caused 
by the popular idea that they have no souls, and 
that when they die they entirely perish. Whence 
came that most preposterous idea? Surely not 
from the only source where we might expect to 



FUTURE LIFE OF ANIMALS 251 

learn about souls — not from the Bible, for there 
we distinctly read of 'the spirit of the sons of man,' 
and immediately afterwards of 'the spirit of the 
beasts,' one aspiring, the other not so. And a nec- 
essary consequence of the spirit is a life after the 
death of the body. Let any one wait in a fre- 
quented thoroughfare for one short hour, and 
watch the sufferings of the poor brutes that pass 
by. Then, unless he denies the Divine Providence, 
he will see clearly that unless these poor creatures 
were compensated in a future life, there is no such 
quality as justice." 

Eugene T. Zimmerman says: "I cannot help 
but think that my faithful dog, and playmate of 
my younger days, will have some form of a future 
life." 

We do not recognise an absolute spiritual bar- 
rier of separation between man and animals. Man 
is an animal — the first of animals; but it does not 
of necessity follow that he will always continue to 
be so. By what right does he presume to deny a 
soul and a continued spiritual existence to lower 
animals ? Are we not all of us fellows and co-work- 
ers, partakers of the same universal life, sharing 
alike a common source and destiny? This has 
always been the faith and insight of the child, whose 
simple wisdom we ever turn to for truth and guid- 



252 THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS 

ance. And in our clearer realisation of the oneness 
of all life, we will extend to all creatures the Golden 
Rule, showing them the love and consideration we 
would have shown to us. 



